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Conceptualization of Market Expansion Strategies in Developing Economies
Of late, the issue of market expansion has attracted the attention of academia as well as industry. Market expansion as a strategic growth option is particularly relevant in developing countries like India because of very low product penetration and consumption levels. The McKinsey Quarterly in its global survey of business executives reports that 84 percent of executives consider growing number of consumers in emerging markets as an important trend but a lesser number of executi...
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Measuring Market-Based Approaches
By Raman Nanda Market-based approaches, which can sustainably provide needed goods and services once donor dollars have dried up, must be a part of the solution to the problems of poverty. However, building new models that provide such goods and services at affordable prices ? in the face of high transaction costs, poor distribution systems, dispersed customers, limited financing options and, often, corruption ? requires imaginative business solutions and partnerships...
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Global Survey Finds Most Companies Lack Sustainability Strategy
Results of a global survey of corporations on sustainability released today show that one-half of businesses polled lack a sustainability strategy. Those with a strategy are more likely to be focused on improving perceptions and responding to increasing regulations, rather than meeting social needs or generating revenue opportunities. CEOs made up the majority of survey respondents, and although less than half have a strategy today, 55 percent said sustainability will grow in impor...
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Banking Access Can Help Break Cycle of Poverty
Johannesburg, Jun 11, 2008 (Business Day/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX News Network) -- QUEUING at the bank often seems as inevitable, and about as much fun, as death and taxes. Yet for many in SA, bank services remain far out of reach. The findings of the 2005-06 Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) on access to financial services show up the divisions in the economy that leave so many poor and unemployed, and the way markets continue to replicate the inequalities created ove...
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Latin America: Social innovation ? Giving the majority a stake
Latin American companies are getting to grips with ?bottom of the pyramid? business. Illiterate residents across rural Bolivia have never heard of the academic CK Prahalad. And until recently many had never used modern banking services. They still don?t know who Prahalad is, but now they are withdrawing money from a voice-recognition ATM developed by Prodem, a microfinance institution. In addition to understanding verbal instructions, the specially adapted bank ...
- Region
- Latin America
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Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid
A decade after founding SKS Microfinance, CEO Akula explains how to make money at the bottom tier of the economic pyramid while raising the living standards of the people who occupy it. His company, which provides many small-business loans and other financial services to poor women in India, has a customer base that has been nearly tripling each year and now numbers more than 2 million. Akula attributes his firm’s success in part to heeding three principles: Adopt a profit-oriented approach ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Scojo Foundation Changes Name to VisionSpring, Launches $5 Million Prospectus to Build Sustainable S
Scojo Foundation today announced that it is changing its name to VisionSpring to better reflect its mission and brand for the long term and is launching a five year, $5 million dollar prospectus to secure funding to build a sustainable enterprise capable of reducing poverty and creating economic opportunities throughout Latin America, South Asia and Africa.? ?VisionSpring?s prospectus builds on our commitment as part of the Clinton Global Initiative to triple the scale of our impact ...
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Kenyan mobile IPO may mark market?s zenith
The stage has been set for east Africa?s biggest ? and most hyped ? initial public offering, with record-breaking profits, a share sale almost five-times subscribed and the cheerleading of Kenyan politicians. Safaricom, a Kenyan mobile phone operator part-owned by Vodafone, begins trading on the Nairobi stock exchange on Monday following the government?s sale of a 25 per cent stake in the group. In spite of the euphoria surrounding the company, which dominates Kenya?s two-p...