Consolidating Unorganised Retail Businesses through Digital Platforms: Implications for Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Malobi Mukherjee,Jacob Wood

doi:10.3390/su132112031

Abstract

This study explores whether digitalisation of unorganised retail (UR) businesses in emerging markets have a positive socio-economic impact on the lives of the subsistence consumer–merchants who perform the dual role of being, not only consumers providing for themselves and their families, but also the managers of micro-UR businesses. We develop a framework for sustainable business model innovation at the base of the pyramid by undertaking content analysis of 65 newspaper articles (interviews with senior executives and founders of digital app-based platforms, expert analysis) as well as social media and YouTube testimonials of UR business users of these platforms in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Using the Gioian coding structure of open and second order comparative coding, we develop a framework for sustainable business model innovation from the base of the pyramid perspective. The framework captures how digitalisation enables the UR businesses to circumvent resource shortages, consolidate procurement and inventory management and diversify product and service offerings, which leads to significant economic and social transformation for both the micro enterprises and their owners. Our framework contributes to the emergent literature on sustainable business model innovation and inclusive innovation in resource-constrained contexts. We conclude that sustainable business model innovations enable socio-economic transformations similar to those experienced by UR businesses in emerging Asian markets. Such developments can create local level pathways for local tropical countries seeking to achieve UN social development goals.

Highlights

The objective of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework exploring the impact of digitisation on unorganised retail (UR) businesses and the implications for sustainable business model innovations at the base of the pyramid
We conclude that the consolidation of business operations enables the UR businesses to overcome fundamental inefficiencies in daily business operations enabling economies of scale and scope
What emerges from our analysis of UR digitisation in four South East Asian countries is a grounded process framework (Figure 2) which explains how digitisation enables UR businesses to circumvent resource shortage, consolidate procurement and inventory management, resulting in overall economic and social transformation for the UR

Summary

Introduction

The objective of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework exploring the impact of digitisation on unorganised retail (UR) businesses and the implications for sustainable business model innovations at the base of the pyramid. Changes in the global economy owing to overall economic downturns, technological disruptions, climate change, resource scarcity [3] and the resultant sustainable development agenda has given rise to a stream of sustainable business model innovation literature. There is burgeoning literature [6,7] exploring the impact of app-based technological intervention in improving the economic performance of UR firms in emerging markets. Within this context, Gupta and Ramachandran [8] highlight the scope for exploring how technological intervention can improve efficiencies in UR business operations reliant largely on traditional supply chains, manual records of credit and in-store inventory

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Conclusion