Doing more with less in base of the pyramid markets: Effective structuring of community institutions

Abstract

In the current economic climate firms face economic pressures to cut costs and reduce risk as well as pressures from the capital markets to find growth opportunities. Trends in globalization imply that tapping into the latent growth potential of a poorly understood consumer class living in far-flung countries, so-called base of the pyramid markets, is one solution, but this means that firms face a challenge not only to do more with less, but to do it where it has not been done before. To help firms make some progress on this difficult issue, we suggest strategies that to pursue these growth opportunities more effectively even in these austere times. We review the management literature to suggest some paradigms for how firms might approach these market opportunities. Then we review the information problems in terms of structuring of cultural cognitive and socio-normative institutions at the community level of analysis. We develop propositions to help firms be more effective at shaping the institutional env...