Impact at the 'Bottom of the Pyramid': The role of social capital in capability development and community empowerment

Journal of Management Studies

Volumn 49, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 813-842

  Ansari, Shahzad ^a   Munir, Kamal ^a   Gregg, Tricia ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Amartya Sen; Bottom of the pyramid; Capabilities; Capitalism; Community wellbeing; Corporate social responsibility; Income; Networks; Poverty alleviation; Public private collaboration; Social capital; Social entrepreneurship

Indexed keywords

EID: 84860690762     PISSN: 00222380     EISSN: 14676486     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01042.x     Document Type: Article

References (147)

1. Adler, P. and Kwon, S. (2002). 'Social capital: prospects for a new concept'. Academy of Management Review, 27, 17-40.
2. Alkire, S. (2007). Choosing Dimensions: The Capability Approach and Multidimensional Poverty. Working Paper No. 88, Oxford University, Oxford.
3. Amsden, A. (2001). The Rise of 'The Rest': Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies. New York: Oxford University Press.
4. Anand, P., Hunter, G. and Smith, R. (2005). 'Capabilities and wellbeing. Evidence based on the Sen-Nussbaum approach to welfare'. Social Indicators Research, 74, 9-55.
5. Anderson, J. and Billou, N. (2007). 'Serving the world's poor: innovation at the bottom of the pyramid'. Journal of Business Strategy, 28, 14-21.
6. Anderson, J. and Markides, C. (2007). 'Strategic innovation at the base of the pyramid'. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49, 83-8.
7. Argote, L., McEvily, W. and Reagans, R. (2003). 'Managing knowledge in organizations: an integrative framework and review of emerging themes'. Management Science, 49, 571-82.
8. Arnould, E. and Mohr, J. (2005). 'Dynamic transformations for base-of-the-pyramid market clusters'. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 33, 254-74.
9. Arora, S. and Romijn, H. (2010). Innovation for the Base of the Pyramid: Critical Perspectives from Development Studies on Heterogeneity and Participation. Working Paper No. 2009-036, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht.
10. Arora, S. and Romijn, H. (2011). 'The empty rhetoric of poverty reduction at the base of the pyramid'. Organization, doi: 10.1177/1350508411414294.
11. Austin, J., Márquez, P., Reficco, E., Berger, G., Fedato, C., Fischer, R. M. etal. (2007). 'Building new business value chains with low-income sectors in Latin America'. In Rangan, K., Quelch, J., Herrero, G. and Barton, B. (Eds), Business Solutions for the Global Poor: Creating Social and Economic Value. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 193-206.
12. Banerjee, A. and Duflo, E. (2007). 'The economic lives of the poor'. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21, 141-67.
13. Banerjee, A. and Duflo, E. (2011). Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: Public Affairs.
14. Barney, J. B. (2005). 'Should strategic management research engage public policy issues?'. Academy of Management Journal, 48, 945-8.
15. Barr, A. (1998). Enterprise Performance and the Functional Diversity of Social Capital. Working Paper No. 98-1, Oxford University, Oxford.
16. Bateman, M. (2010). Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism. London: Zed Books.
17. Berlin, I. (1958). 'Two concepts of liberty', reprinted in Berlin, I. (1982), Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
18. Bhattacharyya, O., Khor, S., McGahan, A., Dunne, D., Daar, A. and Singer, P. (2010). 'Innovative health service delivery models in low and middle income countries - what can we learn from the private sector?'. Health Research Policy and Systems, 8, 1-11.
19. Biggart, N. and Delbridge, R. (2004). 'Systems of exchange'. Academy of Management Review, 29, 28-49.
20. Boisot, M. (1995). Information Space: A Framework for Learning in Organizations, Institutions, and Culture. Emea: Thomson Learning.
21. Boland, R. and Tenkasi, R. (1995). 'Perspective making and perspective taking in communities of knowing'. Organization Science, 6, 350-72.
22. Bolino, M., Turnley, W. and Bloodgood, J. (2002). 'Citizenship behavior and the creation of social capital in organizations'. Academy of Management Review, 22, 505-22.
23. Boltanski, L. and Thévenot, L. (2006[1991]). On Justification. Economies of Worth. Trans. Catherine Porter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
24. Bourdieu, P. (1986). 'The forms of capital'. In Richardson, J. (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood, 241-58.
25. Briggs, X. (1998). 'Brown kids in white suburbs: housing mobility and the multiple faces of social capital'. Housing Policy Debate, 9, 177-221.
26. Brown, J. and Duguid, P. (1991). 'Organizational learning and communities of practice: toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation'. Organization Science, 2, 40-57.
27. Bruton, G. (2010). 'Letter from the editor. Business and the world's poorest billion - the need for an expanded examination by management scholars'. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24, 6-10.
28. Burkey, S. (1993). People First: A Guide to Self-Reliant Participatory Rural Development. Atlantic Heights: Zed Books.
29. Burt, R. (2001). 'Structure holes versus network closure as social capital'. In Lin, N., Cook, K. and Burt, R. (Eds), Social Capital: Theory and Research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 31-56.
30. Campbell, J. (2006). 'Institutional analysis and the paradox of corporate social responsibility'. American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 925-36.
31. Chambers, R. (1983). Rural Development: Putting the Last First. Harlow: Longman Group.
32. Chaudhuri, H. (2010). 'Everyday life of the subaltern consumers: contexts, realities, and issues for marketing'. Marketing Review, 10, 259-67.
33. Chhotray, V. (2004). 'The negation of politics in participatory development projects, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh'. Development and Change, 35, 327-52.
34. Cicourel, A. V. (1973). Cognitive Psychology. Harmondworth: Penguin Books.
35. Cohen, W. and Levinthal, D. (1990). 'Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 128-52.
36. Coleman, J. (1988). 'Social capital in the creation of human capital'. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95-S120.
37. Coleman, J. (1990). Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38. Collier, P. (2007). The Bottom Billion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
39. Davidson, D. (2009). 'Ethical concerns at the bottom of the pyramid: where CSR meets BOP'. Journal of International Business Ethics, 2, 22-32.
40. Delios, A. (2010). 'How can organizations be competitive but dare to care?'. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24, 25-36.
41. de Soto, H. (2000). The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books.
42. Dienhart, J. (2010). 'Sustainability, cross-sector collaboration, institutions, and governance'. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20, 725-8.
43. Dreze, J. and Sen, A. (1989). Hunger and Public Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
44. Easterly, W. (2006). The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. New York: Penguin Press.
45. Edelman, L., Bresnan, M., Newell, S., Scarbrough, H. and Swan, J. (2004). 'The benefits and pitfalls of social capital: empirical evidence from two organizations in the United Kingdom'. British Journal of Management, 15, S59-S69.
46. Evans, P. (2002). 'Collective capabilities, culture, and Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom Studies'. Comparative International Development, 37, 54-60.
47. Gardetti, M. (2005). 'A base-of-the-pyramid approach in Argentina: preliminary findings from a BoP learning lab'. Greener Management International, 51, 65-77.
48. Gasper, D. (2007). 'What is the capability approach? Its core, rationale, partners and dangers'. Journal of Socio-Economics, 36, 335-59.
49. Gooderham, P., Minbaeva, D. and Pedersen, T. (2011). 'Governance mechanisms for the promotion of social capital for knowledge transfer in multinational corporations'. Journal of Management Studies, 48, 123-50.
50. Gordon, M. (2008). 'Management education and the base of the pyramid'. Journal of Management Education, 32, 767-81.
51. Granovetter, M. (1973). 'The strength of weak ties'. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360-80.
52. Guthrie, D. and Durand, R. (2008). 'Social issues in the study of management'. European Management Review, 5, 137-49.
53. Hahn, R. (2009). 'The ethical rational of business for the poor - integrating the concepts bottom of the pyramid, sustainable development, and corporate citizenship'. Journal of Business Ethics, 84, 313-24.
54. Hall, J., Matos, M., Severino, L., Sheehan, L. and Silvestre, B. (2012). 'Entrepreneurship and innovation at the base of the pyramid: a recipe for inclusive growth or social exclusion?'. Journal of Management Studies, 49, 785-812.
55. Hammond, A. and Prahalad, C. (2004). 'Selling to the poor'. Foreign Policy, 142, 30-7.
56. Hart, S. (2007). Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth, and Humanity, 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.
57. Hart, S. (2008). 'Foreword'. In Kandachar, P. and Halme, M. (Eds), Sustainability Challenges and Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid: Business, Technology and the Poor. Sheffield: Greenleaf, ix-xi.
58. Hinings, C. and Greenwood, R. (2002). 'Disconnects and consequences in organization theory?'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 411-21.
59. Holzmann, R. and Jorgensen, S. (1999). Social Protection as Social Risk Management. Working Paper No. 9901, The World Bank, Washington, DC.
60. Isham, J. (1999). The Effect of Social Capital on Technology Adoption: Evidence from Rural Tanzania. The Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, The American Economic Association, New York City.
61. Karamchandani, A., Kubzansky, M. and Lalwani, N. (2011). 'Is the bottom of the pyramid really for you?'. Harvard Business Review, 89, 107-11.
62. Karim, L. (2008). 'Demystifying micro-credit: the Grameen Bank, NGOs, and neoliberalism in Bangladesh'. Cultural Dynamics, 20, 5-29.
63. Karlan, D. and Zinman, J. (2011). 'Microcredit in theory and practice: using randomized credit scoring for impact evaluation'. Science, 332, 1278-84.
64. Karnani, A. (2007a). 'Doing well by doing good - case study: "Fair and Lovely" whitening cream'. Strategic Management Journal, 28, 1351-7.
65. Karnani, A. (2007b). 'The mirage of marketing to the bottom of the pyramid: how the private sector can help alleviate poverty'. California Management Review, 49, 90-111.
66. Khan, F., Munir, K. and Willmott, H. (2007). 'A dark side of institutional entrepreneurship: soccer balls, child labour and postcolonial impoverishment'. Organization Studies, 28, 1055-77.
67. Kilduff, M. and Tsai, W. (2003). Social Networks and Organizations. London: Sage.
68. Kirchgeorg, M. and Winn, M. (2006). 'Sustainability marketing for the poorest of the poor'. Business Strategy and the Environment, 15, 171-84.
69. Kolk, A., Rivera-Santos, M. and Rufin, C. (2010). What Do We Really Know about the Base of the Pyramid Concept? A Literature Review. The 2010 Academy of Management Meeting, The Academy of Management, Montreal.
70. Korten, D. (2001). 'The responsibility of business to the whole'. In Starkey, R. and Welford, R. (Eds), The Earthscan Reader in Business & Sustainable Development. London: Earthscan, 230-41.
71. Kozel, V. and Parker, B. (1998). Poverty in Rural India: The Contribution of Qualitative Research on Poverty Analysis. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
72. Krahn, H., Harrison, T., Haan, M. and Johnston, W. (2009). 'Social capital and political engagement in Canada'. International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, 46, 51-76.
73. Kuriyan, R., Ray, I. and Toyama, K. (2008). 'Information and communication technologies for development: the bottom of the pyramid model in practice'. The Information Society, 24, 1-12.
74. Landrum, N. (2007). 'Advancing the "base of the pyramid" debate'. Strategic Management Review, 1, 1-12.
75. Lang, J. (2004). 'Social context and social capital as enablers of knowledge integration'. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8, 89-105.
76. Lin, N. (1999). 'Social networks and status attainment'. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 467-87.
77. London, T. (2009). 'Making better investments at the base of the pyramid'. Harvard Business Review, May, 106-13.
78. London, T. and Hart, S. (2004). 'Reinventing strategies for emerging markets: beyond the transnational model'. Journal of International Business Studies, 35, 350-70.
79. London, T., Anupindi, R. and Sheth, S. (2010). 'Creating mutual value: lessons learned from ventures serving base of the pyramid producers'. Journal of Business Research, 63, 582-94.
80. Mahajan, V. and Banga, K. (2006). The 86 Percent Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
81. Mahoney, J. and McGahan, A. (2007). 'The field of strategic management within the evolving science of strategic organization'. Strategic Organization, 5, 79-99.
82. Margolis, J. and Walsh, J. (2003). 'Misery loves companies: rethinking social initiatives by business'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 268-305.
83. McFalls, R. (2007). 'Testing the limits of "inclusive capitalism": a case study of the South Africa HP i-community'. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 28, 85-98.
84. Mendoza, R. (2011). 'Why do the poor pay more? Exploring the poverty penalty concept'. Journal of International Development, 23, 1-28.
85. Moore, M. (1997). 'Societies, polities and capitalists in developing countries: a literature survey'. Journal of Development Studies, 33, 287-363.
86. Moser, C. (1996). Confronting Crisis: A Comparative Study of Household Responses to Poverty and Vulnerability in Four Poor Urban Communities. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
87. Mosse, D. (2001). 'Social research in rural development projects'. In Gellner, D. and Hirsch, E. (Eds), Inside Organizations: Anthropologists at Work. Oxford: Berg Publications, 157-82.
88. Munir, K., Ansari, S. and Gregg, T. (2010). 'Beyond the hype: taking business strategy to the "bottom of the pyramid"'. In Baum, J. and Lampel, J. (Eds), The Globalization of Strategy Research. Bingley: Emerald, 247-76.
89. Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998). 'Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage'. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242-66.
90. Narayan, D. (1995). Designing Community-Based Development. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
91. Narayan, D. (1999). Bonds and Bridges: Social Capital and Poverty. Working Paper No. 2167, The World Bank, Washington, DC.
92. Narayan, D. and Cassidy, M. (2001). 'A dimensional approach to measuring social capital: development and validation of a social capital inventory'. Current Sociology, 49, 59-102.
93. Narayan, D., Chambers, R., Shah, M. and Petesch, P. (2000). Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change. New York: Oxford University Press.
94. Nussbaum, M. (1988). 'Nature, function and capability: Aristotle on political distribution'. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Supplement, 145-84.
95. Nussbaum, M. (2000). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
96. Nussbaum, M. and Sen, A. (Eds) (1993). The Quality of Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
97. Olsen, M. and Boxenbaum, E. (2009). 'Bottom-of-the-pyramid: organizational barriers to implementation'. California Management Review, 51, 100-25.
98. Portes, A. (1998). 'Social capital: its origins and applications in modern sociology'. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1-24.
99. Prahalad, C. (2002). 'Strategies for the bottom of the economic pyramid: India as a source of innovation'. Reflections/Sigma Theta Tau, 3, 6-17.
100. Prahalad, C. (2006). The Fortunate at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.
101. Prasad, V. and Ganvir, V. (2005). 'Study of the principles of innovation for the BoP consumer - the case of a rural water filter'. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 2, 349-66.
102. Putnam, R. (1993). 'The prosperous community: social capital and public life'. American Prospect, 13, 35-42.
103. Putnam, R. (1995). 'Bowling alone: America's declining social capital'. Journal of Democracy, 6, 65-78.
104. Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
105. Reficco, E. and Márquez, P. (2009). 'Inclusive networks for building BOP markets'. Business Society, doi: 10.1177/1350508411414294.
106. Reich, R. (2007). Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life. New York: Borzio Books.
107. Reinecke, J. (2010). 'Beyond a subjective theory of value and towards a fair price: an organizational perspective on Fairtrade minimum price setting'. Organization, 17, 563-81.
108. Ricart, J., Enright, M., Ghemawat, P., Hart, S. and Khanna, T. (2004). 'New frontiers in international strategy'. Journal of International Business Studies, 35, 175-200.
109. Rivera-Santos, M. and Rufin, C. (2010). 'Global village vs. small town: understanding networks at the base of the pyramid'. International Business Review, 19, 126-39.
110. Robeyns, I. (2003). 'Sen's capability approach and gender inequality: selecting relevant capabilities'. Feminist Economics, 9, 61-92.
111. Rosenweig, J. (1998). Winning the Global Game: A Strategy for Linking People and Profits. New York: Free Press.
112. Roxas, S. and Ungson, G. (2011). 'From alleviation to eradication: a reassessment of modernization, market-based, and communitarian solutions to global poverty'. Poverty & Public Policy, 3, 1-25.
113. Rufín, C. and Rivera-Santos, M. (2008). Global Village vs. Small Town: Understanding Networks at the Base of the Pyramid. Unpublished Manuscript.
114. Sachs, J. (2005). The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin.
115. Sanchez, P. and Ricart, J. (2010). 'Business model innovation and sources of value creation in low-income markets'. European Management Review, 7, 138-54.
116. Schafft, K. (1998). Grassroots Development and the Reconfiguration of Local Political Institutions: Local Minority Self-Governance as a Political and Economic Resource for Hungary's Roma Population. Graduate Student Conference on International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
117. Scherer, A. and Palazzo, G. (2011). 'The new political role of business in a globalized world: a review of a new perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy'. Journal of Management Studies, 48, 899-931.
118. Schwittay, A. (2009). 'Taking Prahalad high-tech: the emergence and evolution of global corporate citizenship in the IT industry'. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 33, 97-107.
119. Scott, J. (1976). The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
120. Seelos, C. and Mair, J. (2007). 'Profitable business models and market creation in the context of deep poverty: a strategic view'. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21, 49-63.
121. Sen, A. (1983). Poverty and Famines. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
122. Sen, A. (1985). 'Wellbeing, agency and freedom: the Dewey Lectures 1984'. Journal of Philosophy, 82, 169-221.
123. Sen, A. (1987). 'The standard of living: lecture II, lives and capabilities'. In Hawthorn, G. (Ed.), The Standard of Living. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20-38.
124. Sen, A. (1992). Inequality Re-Examined. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
125. Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
126. Sen, A. (2010). 'Introduction in human development report 2010. 20th anniversary edition'. In United Nations Development Programme (Ed.), The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development. New York: United Nations Development Programme, vi-vii.
127. Simanis, E. and Hart, S. (2008). The Base of the Pyramid Protocol: Toward Next Generation BoP Strategy, 2nd edition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
128. Simanis, E. and Hart, S. (2009). 'Innovation from the inside out'. MIT Sloan Management Review, 50, 77-86.
129. Starkey, K. and Tempest, S. (2004). 'Bowling along: strategic management and social capital'. European Management Review, 1, 78-83.
130. Stewart, F. (2005). 'Groups and capabilities'. Journal of Human Development, 6, 185-204.
131. Sugden, R. (1993). 'Welfare, resources, and capabilities: a review of inequality reexamined by Amartya Sen'. Journal of Economic Literature, 31, 1947-62.
132. Tsai, W. (2001). 'Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance'. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 996-1004.
133. Tsai, W. and Ghoshal, S. (1998). 'Social capital and value creation: the role of intrafirm networks'. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 464-76.
134. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (2008). 'Capacity development: empowering people and institutions'. Available at: (accessed 26 November 2011).
135. Unterstell, N. and Alves, M. (2006). 'Whose fortune is at the bottom of the pyramid?'. International Society for Third Sector Research Seventh International Conference, Bangkok.
136. Vachani, S. and Smith, N. (2008). 'Socially responsible distribution: distribution strategies for reaching the bottom of the pyramid'. California Management Review, 50, 52-84.
137. Van Bastelaer, T. (1999). Does Social Capital Facilitate the Poor's Access to Credit? A Review of the Microeconomic Literature. Working Paper No. 8, The World Bank, Washington, DC.
138. Van den Bosch, F., Volberda, H. and de Boer, M. (1999). 'Coevolution of firm absorptive capacity and knowledge environment: organizational forms and combinative capability'. Organization Science, 10, 551-68.
139. Varshney, A. (2000). Ethnic Conflict and Civil Life: Hindus and Muslims in India. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
140. Viswanathan, M. (2007). 'Understanding product and market interactions in subsistence marketplaces: a study in South India'. Advances in International Management, 20, 21-56.
141. Waddell, S. (2000). 'New institutions for the practice of corporate citizenship: historical, intersectoral, and developmental perspectives'. Business and Society Review, 105, 107-26.
142. Walsh, J., Kress, J. and Beyerchen, K. (2005). 'Book review essay: promises and perils at the bottom of the pyramid'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50, 473-82.
143. Warnholz, J. (2007). Poverty Reduction for profit? A Critical Examination of Business Opportunities at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Working Paper No. 160, Oxford University, Oxford.
144. Watts, M. (2006). 'Culture, development and global neoliberalism'. In Radcliffe, S. (Ed.), Culture and Development in a Globalising World. London: Routledge, 30-58.
145. Woolcock, M. and Narayan, D. (2000). 'Social capital: implications for development theory, research, and policy'. World Bank Research Observer, 15, 225-49.
146. Zahra, S. (2010). 'Harvesting family firms - organizational social capital: a relational perspective'. Journal of Management Studies, 47, 345-66.
147. Zahra, S. and George, G. (2002). 'Absorptive capacity: a review, reconceptualization, and extension'. Academy of Management Review, 27, 185-203.