| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation examines the growth of new ventures established to serve base of the pyramid markets (BoP). Entrepreneurial ventures are seen as having an increasingly important role in bringing essential services to people at the BoP, who mostly live in rural areas of developing countries. For example, entrepreneurs can bring innovation in service delivery and business models to commercialise renewable energy technology, and aid in reaching the nearly one billion people currently without access to electricity. The growth of such entrepreneurial ventures is important, both from the perspective of the scale of the problem, as well as from the perspective of the venture’s sustainability. This dissertation develops new knowledge on the process of growth of new ventures at the BoP. From a theoretical perspective, it develops the conceptual understanding of new venture growth processes, and the modes, mechanisms, and strategies involved in growing. From a practical perspective, it explains how new ventures at the BoP overcome challenges posed by the BoP context to achieve scale.
The dissertation comprises of four empirical papers and uses a case study approach to investigate the growth of new ventures in the off-grid rural electrification market in India. The first research paper focuses on the under-researched aspect of growth processes in new ventures. It finds that the trajectory of growth of a new venture at the BoP is erratic, and involves the use of multiple modes of growth and business models. It establishes that the process of growth is linked to the development of context specific capabilities and the need to manage resources in the BoP context. The second research paper deals with business model design for the BoP context. The study finds the use of specifically designed interim business models that enable either adaptation to, or shaping of, the context. Research paper three and research paper four both examine replication as a strategy for growth at the BoP. These papers provide new insight on the benefits of close copying versus local adaptation of routines when replicating for growth, and the role the context and impact orientation of the venture plays in this. | en_US |
