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We Asked Small Business Owners How Digitalization is Impacting Their Businesses: Here’s How They Responded
Digitalization has become the go-to strategy for improving the performance of Latin America’s micro and small enterprises (MSEs). But according to Daryl Collins and Maria Pia Torres at Decodis, we know little about how MSE owners themselves experience these changes. They share insights from Decodis' surveys of 114 mostly women-led MSEs in Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which highlight how digital solutions have become embedded in these businesses – and where business owners see the most value in digitalization.
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- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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Just Useful… Or Truly Catalytic? How Entrepreneurs Really View Catalytic Capital — And What Impact Investors Can Do About It
Much of the attention in the impact finance sector tends to go to the stewards of capital — investors, foundations and other funders — most of whom firmly believe that catalytic capital is the type of finance that entrepreneurs value most. But as Bjoern Struewer at Roots of Impact and Jed Emerson at Tiedemann point out, it's unclear if investors' assumptions about the value of catalytic capital align with entrepreneurs’ actual opinions about it. They discuss new research that explores what entrepreneurs really value in this type of financing — and how these structures might be improved.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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KYC is a Journey, Not a Destination: The Value of Know-Your-Customer Innovation for African Tech Startups
Identity theft is increasingly common in Africa, and the problem is likely to get worse. According to Lanre Ogungbe at Identitypass, digital access is expanding rapidly on the continent, and tech startups are under pressure to create frictionless signup processes for new users, which sometimes comes at the expense of better security. He argues that this has created an urgent need for better Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, and explores why tech startups should view KYC not as a regulatory obligation, but rather as an opportunity for innovation that can improve their products, protect their customers and increase their business success.
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- Finance, Technology
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Understanding Consumer Satisfaction in Low-Income Markets: The Factors that Turn Customers into Brand Promoters – or Detractors
Many companies are addressing social needs by selling affordable food, hygiene and other products in developing countries. But as Rakib Hasan Rabbi and Patrick Guyer at Bopinc explain, in order to produce positive social and business impacts, these products must achieve a sufficient level of consumer satisfaction. They share results from consumer-level research in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, which reveal several key product attributes that can keep low-income consumers satisfied and motivate them to recommend products to others.
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- Impact Assessment
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2022: Vote for Your Favorite!
It's time for NextBillion's “Most Influential Article of the Year” contest, in which we select our 12 most-read articles from the past year and invite readers to choose their favorites. We welcome you to read the articles and to vote by scrolling down to the voting app at the bottom of this announcement — or at the individual articles in the contest, which are linked in this announcement and posted on our homepage. You can vote up to one time per hour during the voting period, which will run from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3. We wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Environment, Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Fewer ‘Heropreneurs,’ More Heroic Women: Grameen Foundation’s New CEO Discusses Her Vision for the Organization – And the Broader Financial Inclusion Sector
When Zubaida Bai was announced as the new CEO of Grameen Foundation last month, she says the news was often met with two reactions: “Wow, is Muhammed Yunus your hero, too?” and “Oh, Grameen Foundation — they do microfinance, right?” As Bai writes, these reactions highlighted some common misunderstandings about Yunus and Grameen Foundation — and about the real heroes behind anti-poverty work. She explores these misconceptions, and shares her vision for Grameen Foundation and the financial inclusion sector.
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- Finance, Social Enterprise
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Taking a Virtual Trip to the Last Mile: How an Innovative Program is Harnessing Virtual Reality to Advance Progress Toward the SDGs
Boosted by growing internet access and fueled by the pandemic, the virtual reality (VR) market has become the fastest-growing media segment, projected to reach US $185 billion by 2026. According to Julia Winterflood at Kopernik, the immersive nature of VR makes it uniquely suited to raising awareness of social challenges, and the technology is finding applications in the global development sector. She explores how Kopernik is leveraging virtual reality videos to document challenges faced by underserved communities and accelerate progress toward the SDGs.
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- Social Enterprise, Technology, Telecommunications
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The Link Between WASH and ROI: New Research Shows How Investing in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Benefits Both Employees and the Bottom Line
There are clear links between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and workplace productivity: WASH facilities improve worker health and wellbeing, boosting productivity and business performance. But as Kelly Parsons at WaterAid America explains, there has been a lack of research on how much WASH interventions really impact the bottom line of businesses in emerging markets. She shares results from a new WaterAid report that assessed the ROI of WASH investments at several businesses in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Tanzania, and discusses how to maximize the impact of these interventions.
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