Bottom of the Pyramid Concept: Taking Stock

Aditi Ramdorai and Cornelius Herstatt
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Aditi Ramdorai: Hamburg University of Technology
Cornelius Herstatt: Hamburg University of Technology

Chapter Chapter 2 in Frugal Innovation in Healthcare, 2015, pp 7-25 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Bottom of the Pyramid or Base of the Pyramid (BOP) refers to the lowest socio-economic segment in the world. The Bottom of the Pyramid concept was established in a series of articles in practitioner journals by Prof. C. K. Prahalad and colleagues, but the idea was popularized by his book “Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”. This chapter provides an overview of this debate since its inception. The first part of the chapter deals with the characteristics of the socio-economic strata known as BOP. Next, the challenges of doing business with the BOP and business strategies for firms engaging with the BOP are described. Following this, the criticism towards the BOP concept is outlined. In the final section, the current state of BOP scholarship is reviewed and the linkage between the BOP concept and tangential bodies of work is discussed. The chapter concludes with comments on why scholarship in this field of management research is still relevant and interesting.

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Shadow Economy; Social Entrepreneur; Develop Market; World Resource Institute (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:isbchp:978-3-319-16336-9_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-16336-9_2

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