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From Local to Global: The Questions SMEs Should Answer Before Exporting
Whether it helps them survive in a competitive local economy or lets them scale beyond it, foreign market entry can be a vital step for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. But it also represents a major risk for a small business – one that can easily result in failure. Daniel DeValve of the William Davidson Institute highlights three case studies that explore the challenges Philippine SME owners faced in considering a move to a new market – along with the impact their decisions had on their businesses.
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- Uncategorized
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A Mini-Grid Milestone: Can the Industry’s First Trade Association Help Electrify Rural Africa?
In April, the mini-grid industry got its first-ever trade association, as the Africa Mini-grid Developers Association (AMDA) launched with chapters in Kenya and Tanzania – and ambitious goals for expansion across the continent. Though AMDA's membership currently includes about a dozen companies providing 11,000 connections, it aspires to represent 90 percent of the mini-grid sector by the end of 2021. In a Q&A with Scott Anderson, AMDA co-founder Jessica Stephens discusses its plans to transform the mini-grid industry from a feel-good alternative to a power player in the energy sector.
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- Energy
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How India’s Digital Payments Revolution Can Advance its Position as a ‘Soft-Power Superpower’
With cultural exports like Bollywood movies, delicious cuisine and yoga, India is already a soft-power powerhouse, argues Tidhar Wald. But with financial inclusion rising from 35 to 80 percent in just six years, and a biometric ID system that reaches 1 billion people, the country could become a soft-power superpower. Wald explores how India can both inspire and learn from other countries in creating an inclusive digital economy.
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- Finance
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Show Me the Money: How Much Do Accelerators Really Help Entrepreneurs Raise?
Do accelerators really help social entrepreneurs raise more money for their businesses? Studies from the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative suggest the answer is yes, in both emerging markets and high-income countries – but their effectiveness varies greatly. Stephanie Buck of ANDE explores valuable insights from the research that can help optimize accelerators' impact.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Sun, Water, Data: How to Truly Grow Africa’s Agricultural Transformation
Technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things and machine learning are expected to enable a new era of agricultural prosperity in Africa. But many of Africa’s millions of smallholder farmers experience difficulties because they lack access to quality data. Dr. Gilbert Saggia of SAP East Africa asks how the continent should adopt new technologies across the agricultural value chain to help its farmers meet the demands of a population that is expected to grow by 1.3 billion people by 2050.
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- Agriculture, Technology
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Why Focus Groups Aren’t Enough: A Surprising Lesson in Marketing Insurance in Africa
Building a customer-centric company naturally requires engagement with end users. But as digital insurance provider Inclusivity Solutions discovered, sometimes just speaking to customers is not enough. Tyler Tappendorf discusses how the company combined customer feedback with more quantitative data, after focus group input conflicted with real-world results in marketing campaigns in East Africa.
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- Finance
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Failing to Scale: Fixing Common Missteps in mHealth Ventures
Telemedicine or mHealth systems have great potential to bolster fragile health care systems in the developing world. However, these programs often fail to survive beyond the pilot phase. A team at the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship Program at Penn State studied 35 telemedicine and mHealth projects and discovered six recurring reasons for failure to scale. Program director Khanjan Mehta offers solutions to some common missteps.
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- Health Care, Technology
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In Pursuit of Universal Health Care: Time to Take Public-Private Partnership to the Next Level
Public-private partnerships (PPP) are receiving increased attention for their promise to broaden developing countries' capacity to achieve universal health care. But though this attention is good, Dr. Naveen Rao of Merck for Mothers says we also need action. He outlines concrete steps that can make PPPs an integral part of national health policies and harness the local private health sector – not just big multilateral organizations, multinational corporations and NGOs.
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- Finance, Health Care