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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 aim of this paper is to examine the impact of frugal innovation in the fields of livelihood provision, education, infrastructure, and distribution networks on state-building in countries where a significant proportion of the population lives at the base of the pyramid (BoP).

The paper reviews the literature on frugal innovation, democratization and state-building, offers practical examples in support of the conceptual arguments, and provides research propositions for empirical assessment.

The paper provides support for the notion that the creation of more inclusive markets through frugal innovation contributes to socio-economic development, which in turn strengthens democratization and state-building.

Multinational corporations can have a positive impact on democratization by offering for-profit products and services to serve BoP markets.

The paper provides novel insights into the role that frugal innovation plays in state-building and democratization.

Social entrepreneurship has become a growing field of research interest. Yet, past research has been held back by the lack of a rigorous measurement instrument. Rather than defining social entrepreneurship as an organizational form that a venture does or does not have, this paper agrees with Dees and Anderson (2006) that the construct is better thought of as a set of practices, processes and behaviors that organizations can engage in to a higher or a lesser degree. In other words, the construct is a set of behaviors that any organization can engage in. The purpose of the paper is to develop scale items to measure the construct of organizational social entrepreneurship (OSE).

Drawing on previous literature, this paper first develops and then validates scales for measuring OSE as a third-order formative construct. As its second order, the scale includes three components that capture the heterogeneity of the OSE concept: social change intention, commercial activity and inclusive governance.

The OSE scale is developed and tested through a sample of 182 nascent social enterprises from 55 different countries in the world and then revalidated using a second sample of 263 mature social enterprises from 6 European countries. Results suggest that the scale items exhibit internal consistency, reliability, construct validity and nomological validity.

The scale presented here offers an important new venue for social entrepreneurship theorizing. First, it allows scholars to take a broad approach toward a diverse field and to study OSE behavior in any empirical field in which it may occur. Second, the scales also allow for more focused theorizing. Scholars are encouraged to delve into the antecedents of all three components presented here and to study the different performance effects they have in terms of likelihood to survive, growth rate or potential to achieve financial sustainability.

The paper develops a multidimensional construct for OSE. In particular, the authors propose scale items for three central components of social entrepreneurship, namely, social change intentions, commercial activities and inclusive governance. The scales thus measure the three formative dimensions identified by Dees and Anderson (2006) and Defourny and Nyssens (2010).

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the cross-cultural collaboration between developed market and emerging economies promotes an inclusive global value chain (GVC) through innovation and technology transfer. Drawing on global rattan industry, this paper identifies the three typologies and social mechanism of cross-cultural collaboration in GVC.

This study uses a qualitative method with a case study of rattan industry. The case study analysis covers the linkages between upstream industries in emerging economies and downstream industries in developed countries.

The result shows that innovation and technology transfer play an essential role in the cross-cultural collaboration through presenting the creative value-adding process beyond the simple trade of rattan. This study identifies the social mechanism of cross-cultural collaboration in three GVC typologies of rattan industry.

The study was undertaken between 2015 and 2017. The observed value chain in rattan industry context demonstrates the selected business network from Indonesia to the European countries.

There were some activities that worked well for decades, such as creative innovation and technology transfer from multinational corporations to small businesses. The initiative to promote brand seemed to work less well for the local designers in developing countries from being part of the GVC. The creative innovation and technology transfer from multinational corporations to rattan farmers continued to struggle.

This study draws a distinction between the typologies of GVC, where cross-cultural collaboration has developed slowly and those where it comes about quickly. This extends the discussion about creative value between players in developed and developing countries, including the social mechanism of cross-cultural collaboration in GVC.

Sunmed Holidays is the No. 1 specialist holiday operator in Greece. In 1984 the company carried 69,000 people to Greece, which represents around 10 per cent of the Greek market. However, it only represents some one per cent of the overall summer inclusive tour market.

This paper aims to analyse how processes of institutional change in environments of institutional 'voids' affect smallholder farmer market access in Zambia and Malawi, and explores the role of different dis/enabling institutional agents and logics. The authors examine this in the context of two divergent routes of institutional change – one externally imposed and the second driven from within the ecosystem itself. The authors consider how these different institutional processes impact upon smallholder farmers and how they are able to adapt to these changes.

A qualitative research approach is used which lends itself to an analysis of multiple institutional logics that is based upon the multiple positions of market actors. It uses a comparative case study design methodology focused on two broad cases of smallholder farmers in Zambia and Malawi.

The research demonstrates the tension that multiple institutional logics can create especially amongst those most vulnerable particularly where these are not embedded in local realities and mindful of social settings.

It contributes to the understanding of poverty alleviation in rural developing regions, on overcoming institutional voids, market inclusivity and the role of social entrepreneurs and intermediaries, and builds on the perspective of markets as social spaces for economic exchange.

In Bangladesh, 30 percent of the population lives beyond the “last mile” of traditional distribution networks and serving this rural low‐income population with socially useful goods is a huge challenge. The purpose of this paper is to present one of the most innovative and successful cases of its kind in the world, a social enterprise rural distribution model originally developed by CARE Bangladesh and the Bata Shoe Company, to illustrate the possibility of combining market‐based solutions to poverty with socially responsible business growth.

This in‐depth case study was developed over the course of three field visits to Bangladesh between November 2009 and September 2010 based on 25 face‐to‐face interviews with rural sales women, Bata employees and CARE staff as well as participant observation and review of project documents and media reports.

The case provides insights into the origins, lessons learned and key success factors of viable rural sales agent distribution networks serving the poor. A key tension to be managed is keeping the costs of the network down while ensuring that every member is adequately incentivized.

The 3,000 women sales agents in rural Bangladesh engaged with the Rural Sales Program have benefited from earning viable incomes in contexts where opportunities for employment and empowerment of women are limited. Rural populations have gained affordable access to socially beneficial goods such as fortified foods, seeds, daily necessities and shoes. Companies have benefited from learning how to adapt their product offerings to meet the needs of low‐income customers.

Where rural sales initiatives elsewhere have faced challenges, this case is the first published account of the origins of how CARE, Bata, and other companies established a viable and scalable rural sales agent distribution network for the commercial benefit of companies and the economic and social benefit of poor women and their customers.

Social enterprises have long been considered ideal settings for studying hybrid organizing due to their combination of social and economic goals and activities. In this chapter, the authors argue that the current research focus on hybrid organizing foregrounds the paradox, conflicting logics, and multiple identities associated with the pursuit of multiple goals but underappreciates the relationship between hybrid organizing and its institutional context. Recognizing that the primary objective of social enterprises is to tackle social problems, the authors introduce the social problem domain as an analytically useful and theoretically interesting meso-level to examine the role of context for hybrid organizing and to advance conversations on hybridity in organizational theory. Social problem domains offer insights into the political, cultural, and material differences in how various societies deal with social problems, which in turn affects hybrid organizing. The authors provide empirical insights derived from an analysis of social enterprises across three countries and social problem domains. The authors show how the institutional arrangements of social enterprises differ considerably across contexts, and how these arrangements affect how social enterprises become more or less similar compared to traditional ways of organizing in these problem domains. Based on these findings, the authors outline a research agenda on social enterprises that focuses on examining the nature, antecedents, and outcomes of hybrid organizing around social problems across multiple levels of analysis. With this chapter, the authors move the focus of social enterprise research in organizational theory from studying how these organizations cope with multiple logics and goals toward studying how they engage in markets for public purpose.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how various transaction-cost characteristics influence the choice of vertical coordination (VC) structures (e.g. different contract types) and horizontal coordination (HC) structures (e.g. different farmer organization types) to link smallholder farmers efficiently with buyers. It analyzes the relationship between vertical and horizontal structures, and the economic sustainability of different structure combinations.

The paper develops a conceptual framework to predict coordination structures as a function of transaction-cost characteristics, compares predictions for the Malian cereals market to empirical evidence using 15 case studies, and then analyzes structure combinations.

Asymmetric scale between farmers and buyers; uncertainty in production, prices, policy, and contract enforcement; and quality and quantity debasement lead to selections of structures with high levels of control. Vertical and horizontal structures demonstrate a complementary relationship in certain core coordination roles, while exhibiting substitutability in the provision of other coordination activities. The marketing cooperative and marketing contract pairing is the most prevalent combination.

The conceptual framework is useful for explaining the selection of coordination structures, and can be applied in other contexts to strengthen external validity.

The framework facilitates predictions and explanation of both VC and HC structures, with empirical application on a country and value chains receiving little attention in the literature.