Geoffrey M. Kistruck

The Entrepreneurship Process in Base of the Pyramid Markets: The Case of Multinational Enterprise/Nongovernment Organization Alliances

Although base of the pyramid markets are significant sources of entrepreneurial opportunities, the nature of entrepreneurship in these markets is not well understood. Additionally, these markets remain largely underserved by multinational enterprises (MNEs). Given theoretical and practical gaps associated with these issues, we integrate entrepreneurship, institutional, and network theories to discuss how the entrepreneurship process of MNEs is negatively affected in base of the pyramid markets. We then explain how partnerships with nongovernment organizations (NGOs) can offset such negative effects due to NGOs‘ high degree of localized knowledge, social embeddedness within multiple informal networks, and ambidexterity in dealing with diverse stakeholder groups. Both economic and social benefits can result from such partnerships.

The Interplay of Form, Structure, and Embeddedness in Social Intrapreneurship

While the influence of form and structure on social entrepreneurship has received some attention within academe, the perception of form as discrete rather than embedded in organizational history, and structure as an individual, dichotomous choice between simple for–profit and nonprofit alternatives, has painted an incomplete picture. Through a rigorous analysis of 10 case studies located within Africa and Latin America involving social intrapreneurship, our findings suggest that cognitive, network, and cultural embeddedness each play an important constraining role that is even more pronounced in organizations that were historically nonprofit in form. However, our results also suggest a variety of decoupled structural approaches that may help mitigate such constraints.

Microfranchising in Base-of-The-Pyramid Markets: Institutional Challenges and Adaptations to the Franchise Model

Microfranchising has attracted interest as a potential strategy for rapid scaling within base–of–the–pyramid (BOP) markets. However, our findings suggest that while microfranchising might provide a number of social benefits to microfranchisees and underserved communities, the institutional contexts that characterize BOP markets create a number of significant challenges to the economic sustainability of the microfranchisor and the overall microfranchising model. Simultaneously, our data also suggest several unique adaptations to the microfranchising model that might help mitigate the institutional challenges associated with agency concerns, resource scarcity, and branding/standardization within BOP markets.

Social Intermediation in Base‐of‐the‐Pyramid Markets

Our study explores the structuring decisions made by intermediaries seeking to alleviate poverty by connecting base‐of‐the‐pyramid markets with more developed markets. Using intermediation theory to ground our study, we collected qualitative data on 29 social intermediation projects located within Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Our findings suggest that ‘socializing’ intermediation theory to more accurately explain and predict structural outcomes across more diverse contexts requires three key modifications: (1) the attenuation of opportunism, which creates an internalizing social force; (2) the accommodation of non‐monetary objectives, which creates an externalizing social force; and (3) the perception of transaction capabilities as tractable, which serves as a guidepost for reconciling these two opposing social forces.

Geographic and Product Diversification in Charitable Organizations

The diversification of firms into new geographic and product markets has received a tremendous amount of attention in the field of management. Charities, on the other hand, have garnered attention among management scholars primarily as social influencers on multinational corporations. However, over the past half-century, charities have become significant diversified entities in and of themselves. At their core, both charitable and for-profit organizations are bundles of routines that struggle to deal with administrative issues related to institutional isomorphism, organizational slack, and resource dependency. However, from a contextual standpoint, one of the primary mechanisms by which the diversification of charities impacts efficiency is the transaction costs associated with seeking out and maintaining external resources from donors in addition to charities’ internal set of capabilities and routines. Using panel data involving 3,616 charities over a five-year period, the authors’ findings suggest that while the main relationship between geographic diversification and efficiency is U shaped in nature, the main relationship between product diversification and efficiency is inverted U shaped. From an interaction perspective, the authors’ results also suggest that while charities that maintain lower levels of product diversification follow a similar U-shaped curve as they increasingly diversify into new regions, this curve is inverted for charities that are engaged in unrelated types of product diversification. Therefore, the study suggests that the extent to which one type of diversification produces positive or negative efficiencies depends significantly on the level of the other type of diversification. Such findings have theoretical implications for both the charitable and for-profit sectors.

The Enabling and Constraining Effects of Social Ties in the Process of Institutional Entrepreneurship

While the past decade has produced a number of insights into the process of institutional change, scholars still lack a comprehensive understanding of the germinal stages of institutional entrepreneurship. More specifically, further knowledge is needed into what factors cause certain individuals to initiate norm-breaking behaviour while others continue to adhere to societal expectations. Prior work seeking to inform this question has focused either on individual-level or environmental-level explanations. Comparatively, we employ a social network perspective as a ‘meso-level’ lens into the space where actors and their environment intersect. Based upon our qualitative findings, we propose that social ties can serve as an important factor in enabling (heterophilic ties) as well as constraining (homophilic ties) institutional change. However, our data also suggest that these network forces are highly dynamic and contingent upon tie frequency, the sequencing of tie contact, and the prevailing social norms in which tie contact takes place.

The Opportunity not Taken: Entrepreneurship as an Occupational Identity in Contexts of Poverty

Innovative entrepreneurship is an essential but often missing component to poverty alleviation efforts. This qualitative study set in rural Ghana explores entrepreneurship as an occupational identi...

NOT TOO BIG AND NOT TOO SMALL: IDENTIFYING THE 'SWEET SPOT' FOR NONPROFIT BOARDS.

The article discusses methods to determine the optimal size for boards of directors in order to maximize financial performance. While some researchers suggest that 8 to 10 members is the ideal size...