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Entrepreneurial ecosystem is a frontier issue in the field of enterprise strategy and entrepreneurship. As suggested by bottom of the pyramid (BOP) theory, entrepreneurs from base of the pyramid can gain the benefits of economic growth by obtaining equal entrepreneurial opportunities with appropriate support and motivation. However, theoretical framework to understand the ecosystem and help the people from the BOP to benefit from ecosystem is under-researched. Based on the investigation of the Taobao ecosystem case study, this paper developed a multi-layer framework to fill in the research gap.

This research adopts case study methodology for several reasons. First, case study methodology fits the explorative nature of this research to understand “what” and “how” a phenomenon happened (Yin, 2017). Second, case study research design can specify gaps or holes in existing theory with the ultimate goal of advancing theoretical explanations (Ridder, 2016). And third, it can provide researchers with contextual richness (Davison and Martinsons, 2016; Spigel, 2017).

Based on the literature review of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the theory of the BOP, the initial framework of the inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem is proposed. And then, based on the investigation of the Taobao village which is the typical inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem, this paper explored how the inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem emerges, develops and realises the co-creation between multiple actors. The emergence of Taobao village entrepreneurial ecosystem is because of the fact that ICT empowers BOP entrepreneurs. The development of entrepreneurial ecosystem presents a point-line-plane diffusion path, and co-creation to enhance inclusive entrepreneurship is realised by interaction and cooperation within social networks and integration of resources. Then, the framework of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem is further modified.

The complexity of entrepreneurial ecosystem facing BOP poses a major challenge to its actual operation. Therefore, it is necessary to study the driving factors of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems. In particular, ecosystem is a purposeful collaborative network of dynamic interactive systems, which has a set of changing dependencies in a given context. Research is still limited on socioeconomic actors’ interaction with each other in each stage to promote the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystem. The extent to which they are intentionally designed or organically produced is still unclear, which is recommended for future study in this field.

It provides theoretical understanding on how to successfully form sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem by integrating BOP entrepreneurs in value chain. The successful experience of Taobao village can provide contributions and implications for the management in practice. On the one hand, this can provide theoretical guidance for other countries and regions to build inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems and help them to check and fill the gaps and build inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems based on their local characteristics. On the other hand, this study provides theoretical guidance for solving the problem of poverty at the BOP, transforming the poor from the objects of help to successful entrepreneurs and thus realising regional sustainable development.

The significance of this study is to provide theoretical understanding on how to successfully form entrepreneurial ecosystem by practical investigation of entrepreneurial “habitat” at the BOP.

The purpose of this article is to examine the purchasing power at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), i.e. of low‐income consumers.

The authors analyze secondary data on income, population, and expenditure at the BOP from different countries, and apply the buying power index (BPI) methodology to assess the purchasing power of low‐income consumers.

In developing countries, more than 50 percent of the purchasing power resides in the BOP segment. Asia is the region with the greatest purchasing power, relative to Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and Caribbean. On average, the greatest BPI is in the lowest income tier, and consumption concentrates mainly in food, housing, and household goods.

The article provides useful information to companies interested in reaching low‐income consumers about the relative purchasing power at the BOP across geographic regions, income tiers, and product categories (or industries).

The research proposes the BPI as a key indicator of purchasing power at the BOP, and shows how this purchasing power breaks up among geographic regions, income tiers, and product categories (or industries).

This paper aims to deliver new models of brand management in bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid (BoP) markets, considering the personality traits, image, technology and reputation of firms associated with the brands.

Reviewing the previous research studies, the paper advocates new strategies for enhancing the performance of global brands in BoP market segments, improving brand‐positioning approaches, measuring brand performance and consumer value, evaluating brand attributes, and underlining brand dynamics in the competitive marketplace.

The study argues that the performance of global brands in low‐profile consumer market segments is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the brand promotions, consumption and consumer value chain. Hence, firms looking towards managing brands in BoP market segments need to reduce brand costs by increasing the volume of sales and augmenting consumer value. Brands of BoP market segments are socially and culturally embedded. They are co‐created by consumers and firms, and positioned with the influence of brand equity of the premium market. Unlike traditional brands, BoP brands may be sufficiently malleable to support brand interpretations in the rural and suburban consumer segments.

Acquired brands need to be merged into the existing structure, especially where these brands occupy market positions similar to those of existing brands. A balance needs to be maintained between the brand name and its equity. Managers should keep themselves better informed about consumer needs, market changes and company initiatives, thereby enabling staff to help consumers to improve service quality, which in turn can improve market positioning.

In today's rapidly changing product markets, a firm needs to focus on a limited number of strategic brands in international markets in order to consolidate and strengthen its position and enhance brand power. The paper offers new business strategies to managers on brand positioning and targeting in suburban and rural markets with convenience packaging, pricing and psychodynamics.

New initiatives to manage global brands in BoP markets comprising suburban and rural markets that need to be implemented in the existing organizational culture are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the different concepts of innovation in the subsistence marketplace from top-down and bottom-up approaches. This study analyzes the literature on the theme and identified research gaps by constructing a framework based on approaches and innovation concepts, which can guide future research efforts. Additionally, this paper presents two case studies, which can improve the way innovation is developed and diffused in the subsistence marketplace.

Through a literature review, this study develops a framework by analyzing innovation concepts in the subsistence marketplace (i.e. base of the pyramid innovation, disruptive innovation, frugal innovation, reverse innovation and inclusive innovation) in light of subsistence marketplace approaches (top-down and bottom-up).

The analysis showed critical research gaps, especially a lack of studies involving disruptive and frugal innovations from a bottom-up approach. This paper also concludes that the top-down approach is more common than the bottom-up one. To fill these gaps, this study presents two business plans by illustrating disruptive innovation vs bottom-up approach and frugal innovation vs bottom-up approach.

The use of real business plans to illustrate proposals having an actual impact on subsistence marketplace regions sheds light on how to address these challenges. By doing so, this paper intends to fill the theoretical gap in disruptive and frugal innovations within a bottom-up approach to promote the development and diffusion of different types of innovation in the subsistence marketplace, and thus provide solutions to alleviate poverty.

This chapter draws on the concept of orders of worth to generate understanding into how sustainable, good markets might be enabled at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Through an ethnographic study of the efforts of a non-government organisation (NGO) to create spaces where values and value at the BoP are unearthed, articulated, contested and translated into market-making practices. Insights are generated into how interventions to make-markets in sites of extreme poverty become ‘worth the effort’. In keeping with the market studies literature, the authors explore how multiple, contested and reframed needs generate insights into the efforts (and practices) that shape orders of worth in economic life. Orders of worth are the everyday practice of social values that constitute economic value and are framed through the moral values of social worlds as these values are put to work to calculate economic value. This work provides a contribution to the market studies literature through our understanding of the relationship between social and economic values in the creation of orders of worth, by showing how this happens at the BoP. Second, the authors contribute to the BoP literature by showing how places and spaces can be created and used to enable markets to unfold and happen. Finally, the findings contribute to our understanding of the types of practices and market-making devices that interventions might adopt and adapt in order to prod potential actors into action. The chapter identifies three types of enabling practices that make markets possible: connecting, integrating and reclassifying.

Pro-poor innovations are innovations targeted at economically poor consumers. These innovations have the potential to improve consumer wellbeing. However, while take up of some such innovations has been rapid (e.g., mobile phones) take up of others has been slower (e.g., fuel efficient stoves). What explains why some pro-poor innovations fail and some succeed? While the literature on consumer innovation adoption in economically wealthy countries is vast, there is very little literature in the context of the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” (BoP) and subsistence marketplaces. This chapter aims to begin answering this question through a review of the extant literature in the area of consumer innovation adoption, which is integrated with literature in the area of consumption within subsistence marketplaces and the BoP. A conceptual model is proposed which outlines key parameters for marketers and managers. The chapter closes by outlining implications and a future research agenda.

The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that there are common challenges and approaches in serving low‐income customers in developing markets, and that these can be articulated and refined to get better business results.

This article derives from research on serving customers at the bottom of the economic pyramid in industries such as fast‐moving consumer goods (fmcg), financial services, telecommunications, construction, health care and home appliances. A two‐year research project was undertaken to test the hypothesis that there were common challenges and approaches in serving bottom of the economic pyramid customers, and that these could be articulated and refined to get better business results. Field visits were made to China, Egypt, India, Mexico and the Philippines, and in‐depth interviews took place with companies that had succeeded in serving customers living in poverty. Companies were identified from the existing body of literature, observation and personal contact. Additionally, data were collected from developing case studies on multinational corporations and local firms that have been successful in serving low‐income customers in developing markets.

The research resulted in the development of a structured framework for developing strategies to serve low‐income customers in emerging markets,

The paper is of direct practical relevance for management practitioners. In particular, the paper suggests that managers need to go beyond traditional marketing approaches to adopt strategies that are customer‐ rather than firm‐centric, and take into account the unique institutional context of many developing markets.

The paper is original in its recommendation that managers might also need to go beyond traditional business partners in developing markets, and explore the role of non‐traditional participants.

Understanding the circumstance of an emerging market is often difficult, but technologies, such as internet of things (IoT), big data analytics (BDA), cloud computing (CC), are helping usher in an era in which understanding could be better and more quickly achieved. These technologies could also play a big role in enabling IT revolution in the developing nations to help companies’ market products and services billions of consumers at bottom of the pyramid (BOP). The aim of this paper is to build a conceptual interface of IoT, personal digital assistant (PDA), BDA and CC and the opportunities sprouting from such technologies.

This is a review paper.

Emerging technologies could allow us to study large population of BOP and social workgroups in near-real time to predict individual and group behaviors, coordination challenges, team social dynamics, and performance outcomes. Organizations will be able to find the differences between stated versus revealed preferences by tracking data on mobile applications, social media engagement, purchasing, and consumption. Social network studies could examine the dynamics of formal and informal networks as they form and evolve, as well as their impact on individual, network, and organizational and social behaviors. High-volume but granular data from emerging technologies could tell more about the social behaviors in BOP than current data-collection methods allow and have the potential to transform management theory and practice serving BOP markets. This will have a profound effect in the BOP markets and firms’ engagements.

This is the first attempt to integrate IoT, BDA and CC with micro-foundations of strategy.

The aim of this paper is to survey the working poor who are microfinance borrowers, examining their perceptions of customer satisfaction and corporate social responsibility.

Validated scale measures were presented in a cross-sectional field study survey of 201 respondents. OLS regression was used after determining factor loadings and reliabilities.

Customer dissatisfaction with the microfinance product, lack of commitment from lender's staff, and dissatisfaction with informational support, were all significantly related to future purchase intentions. Only dissatisfaction toward the firm's people was significantly related to perceptions of CSR.

Dissatisfied poor would prefer to buy elsewhere, even if they find the seller to be socially responsible. However, attitudes and behaviors of the firm's agents convey low CSR. Microfinance customers were sensitive to customer service. Service quality was also significantly related to their perceptions of CSR.

This exploratory research is novel, examining stakeholders at the bottom of the pyramid. Indian respondents came from the origins of microfinance, and are seldom sampled. Despite being captive customers with few alternatives, microfinance borrowers are sensitive to customer service. This service is also significantly related to their perceptions of CSR.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the under‐researched area of social responsibility of small scale individual entrepreneurs (SIEs) and how that impacts on customer loyalty at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) in the context of South Asia.

Drawing from the literature, the paper expands and builds on the previous work of Azmat and Samaratunge on SIEs and develops a set of propositions that provide insights into the probable link between customer awareness, responsible business practices of SIEs and customer loyalty at the BoP level.

Findings highlight the uniqueness of SIEs, BoP customers and the contextual variables in developing countries. The authors further contribute to knowledge by developing the concept of blind customer loyalty, where SIEs are likely to experience customer loyalty regardless of being socially responsible.

Given the limited literature on the social responsibility practices of SIEs, this paper makes a significant contribution to two different but important inter‐related discourses on SIEs and their adoption of socially responsible practices, as well as to the BoP literature.

The paper concludes by outlining the implications for SIEs, policy‐makers, and practitioners, advancing the agenda of social responsibility for future research in the fields of both the BoP and SIEs.

Given their unique characteristics and realities, SIEs in developing countries are involved with customers at the BoP on a day‐to‐day basis. However, there is a significant knowledge gap in the literature on their social responsibility and customer loyalty. This paper is the first of this kind to address and link this critical issue.