Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Aneel Karnani ()

No wp835, William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series from William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Abstract: Poor people – at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) – represent a very attractive market opportunity. The ‘BOP proposition’ argues that selling to the poor can simultaneously be profitable and help eradicate poverty. This is at best a harmless illusion and potentially a dangerous delusion. This paper shows that the BOP argument is riddled with fallacies, and proposes an alternative perspective on how the private sector can help alleviate poverty. Rather than focusing on the poor as consumers, we need to view the poor as producers. The only way to alleviate poverty is to raise the real income of the poor.

Keywords: Poverty; Bottom of the pyramid; Selling to the poor; social responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I30 M10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages
Date: 2006-08-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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