Capabilities for providing socially beneficial services to consumers in low-income markets

Abstract

Providing socially beneficial services to people living close to the poverty line is an exceptionally complex task, due to limited disposable income for such services and little knowledge to understand the actual service benefits. In addition, service providers face capability constraints to provide these types of services. This article examines capabilities for providing services to consumers in low-income markets. Based on a multiple case study on providing drinking water as a service, we show that service providers require three capabilities: (a) adapting the service operation model, (b) converting latent customer needs into value-added services, and (c) extending the customer portfolio. These capability descriptions advance previous capability descriptions about services for low-income consumers.