Toward a theory of transformative entrepreneuring: Poverty reduction and conflict resolution in Rwanda's entrepreneurial coffee sector

This study illustrates how entrepreneurship may catalyze prosperity as well as peace in entrenched poverty–conflict zones. We bring to life a conceptualization of transformative entrepreneuring by assessing interrelationships between poverty and conflict indicators from the perspective of rural dwellers in Rwanda's entrepreneurial coffee sector. Our findings suggest that individuals' perceptions of poverty alleviation and conflict reduction are sequentially linked, notably via increased quality of life. This enables us to advance theory on entrepreneuring by unpacking the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial processes may transform the lives of such ‘ordinary’ entrepreneurs in settings where economic and social value creation are desperately needed.     

Corporate social responsibility for poverty alleviation: An integrated research framework

There is a growing demand by United Nations development agencies and governments for a higher engagement of firms in sustainable development goals, including that of eradicating poverty. Nevertheless, the social issue of poverty has not traditionally been covered by firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In addition, there is a need to integrate theories in order to better explain pro‐poor CSR in developing countries. Relying on a review of both conceptual and empirical research articles on CSR for poverty alleviation, this study contributes to the CSR research agenda by proposing an integrated research framework for assessing and explaining a firm's contribution to poverty alleviation. Besides discussing the existing evidence, the following issues are critically analysed with the general purpose of obtaining the framework and suggesting avenues for future research: the assessment of a firm's contribution to poverty alleviation, types of pro‐poor CSR initiatives that could be adopted by firms, and the factors influencing a firm's contribution. The framework, which intends to be useful for future research, can also assist the United Nations to increase the firms’ contribution to its alleviating poverty sustainable development goal.     

The roles of the private and public sectors in poverty reduction

There are two major actors involved in tackling the challenge of poverty: private businesses and government. Unfortunately, both actors have tended to view each other through the lens of negative stereotypes, and each actor (or its proponents) dismisses the contributions of the other player and minimises its role. Unusual compared to most past literature, Khare and Varman in their article 'Kafkaesque institutions at the base of the pyramid' in this journal in 2016 reject both the private and the public sectors. By contrast, in this article, I argue for an ideologically eclectic approach, and suggest appropriate roles for both business and government in poverty reduction. The private sector needs to focus on creating employment opportunities for the poor and the government should focus on providing basic public services to the poor.     

Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty in developed economies

While entrepreneurship in developing economies at the base of the pyramid is receiving growing attention, scholars have devoted less effort to exploring entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty in advanced economies. Yet, poverty rates have not meaningfully changed in most developed economies in 50 years, and the income gap between rich and poor continues to widen. In this article, we examine entrepreneurship as a source of empowerment for the economically disadvantaged. We explore the nature of poverty and its implications for various aspects of entrepreneurship, identify problematic aspects of the typical low-income startup, and present the SPODER conceptual framework for fostering entrepreneurial development among the poor: (S) supportive infrastructure, (P) preparation of the entrepreneur; (O) expanded opportunity horizons; (D) finding sources of differentiation; (E) a well-designed economic model; and (R) leveraging community resources. We conclude by drawing from the framework implications for those involved in breaking the cycle of poverty.     

The Ethical Rational of Business for the Poor – Integrating the Concepts Bottom of the Pyramid,Sustainable Development,and Corporate Citizenship

The first United Nations Millennium Development Goal calls for a distinct reduction of worldwide poverty. It is now widely accepted that the private sector is a crucial partner in achieving this ambitious target. Building on this insight, the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ concept provides a framework that highlights the untapped opportunities with the ‹poorest of the poor’, while at the same time acknowledging the abilities and resources of private enterprises for poverty alleviation. This article connects the idea of business with the poor to sustainable development and especially to the notions of inter- and intragenerational justice. These principles of justice can be linked with the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ approach directly through the Rawlsian principles to foster holistic thinking. On this basis, the article offers a normative-ethical reasoning of corporations’ possible responsibilities for the poorest of the poor. Today’s state of worldwide inequalities is likely to generate future tensions between the privileged western world and the uncounted mass of poor (let alone the ethical dubiousness of this status). However, it is at the same time problematic if not even impossible to improve the situation of the poor by simply copying the resource intensive western way of living to the ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ due to the limited carrying capacity of the earth. After highlighting possible moral dilemmas which may occur through such a potential trade off, this article concludes with an outlook on how the concepts ‹Bottom of the Pyramid’ and sustainable development could be combined.     

Stimulating Government Technology Commercialization: A Marketing Perspective for Technology Transfer

ABSTRACT

Federal legislation in the United States mandates that technology developed by federal government agencies must demonstrate socioeconomic benefits to justify the expenditure of funds as part of their fiduciary capacity. The mandate is operationalized by requiring federally funded agencies to seek socioeconomic benefits for the nation by developing programs designed to transfer government sponsored or developed technologies to the private sector. This mandate has led to substantial increase in the amount of technology transfer efforts by agencies, with limited results. Challenges include both the recruitment of firms to participation in technology transfer programs and weak efforts by recruited firms to fully commercialize products. This article posits that a marketing exchange approach to technology transfer will facilitate successful technology transfer and commercialization. A conceptual framework is presented from which to view government technology transfer efforts.     

Growth and poverty in India: emerging dimensions of the tertiary sector

The economic reforms of the 1990s have accelerated the tertiarisation of the Indian economy. New activities both in the manufacturing and tertiary sectors have emerged and also seem to have generated employment opportunities that did not exist earlier. Though many such opportunities are available only to the highly skilled and/or educated workforce, the indirect effects are of considerable significance in that they manifest the percolation effects of growth. In this context, the present study aims at examining the nature and composition of the tertiary sector's growth across the major states in India and relates such growth patterns to changes in poverty. On the whole, results are indicative that a large tertiary sector is not as superfluous as is often said to be. It has the potential to enhance economic growth and therefore contribute to poverty reduction.     

The role of training in reducing poverty: the case of microenterprise development in India

Self‐employment in general and microenterprise in particular is evolving as a prospective option for income generation and the reduction of poverty in developing economies such as India. However, a lack of skills among the poor has been identified as one of the key hindrances in promoting microenterprises and, therefore, in reducing poverty. Various initiatives have been taken to promote entrepreneurship among the poor and the present study seeks to examine the role of training in this process. The conclusion is that provision of training alone may not always help in promoting entrepreneurship. The training itself must meet the needs of the trainees, and other strategic variables, particularly access to finance, may need to be in play.     

地方政府财政压力与企业精准扶贫投入

地方政府为如期完成精准扶贫任务,在财政压力较大的情况下,是否会将其压力转移到企业?基于2016-2018年上市公司手工收集的精准扶贫数据,本文考察了地方政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入的影响。研究发现:(1)地方政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入具有“促进”作用,在政府财政压力较大的地区,企业精准扶贫投入越多,且在控制了地区农村贫困人口数后依然成立;(2)政府财政压力的影响作用在不同性质企业中存在明显差异,较于国有企业,政府财政压力对非国有企业的精准扶贫投入影响更大;(3)良好的市场化环境削弱了政府财政压力的影响作用,在市场化程度越高的地区,政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入的影响越小;(4)进一步分组检验发现,政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入的影响作用主要体现在享受政府财政补贴、税收优惠或银行贷款较多的企业中。本研究的政策启示在于,地方政府需注意企业承担精准扶贫任务的“适当性”。     

A Comparative Analysis of Managerial Adaptation to Privatization

ABSTRACT

Economic analysis on emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has shown a flourishing private sector coexisting with shrinking state enterprises fueling speculation that growth would come from the new private sector. In this view, it is important to (1) assess the private sector which continues to grow and is vital to the process of emerging new market economies; and (2) account for the current place of entrepreneurship and assign its role in the process of systemic transformation which takes place in the economies of the CEE. Based on interviews and models on en-trepreneurship, the paper analyzes how the entrepreneurs' behavior is influenced by government regulation, credit terms, taxation, long-term and short-term financing options, level of infrastructure, and preferences to small business, and how entrepreneurs' consequent behavior can in turn influence the working system itself. The goal is to show that the emerging small business sector of the post-Communist Hungarian economy fulfills important material and ideological functions. The paper concludes that the Hungarian entrepreneurship is an independent vehicle for economic growth and bringing about the emergence of capitalist forms of economic production in the post-Communist Hungarian economy.     

Quality‐of‐life as chronotopefication and futurization: Subsistence consumer experiences in India

In the poverty‐ridden settings in neo‐liberal India, we explore how subsistence consumers construct their quality‐of‐life (QOL). Drawing on the concepts of chronotope and futurization, we posit two additional dimensions of subsistence consumers' construction of QOL namely, chronotopefication and futurization. Our findings suggest that chronotopefication and futurization are defining processes of subsistence consumers' construction of QOL perceptions; their sacrifices, efforts, and costs, however painful they may be, would be perceived as QOL enhancing from the prism of chronotopefication and futurization; and subsistence consumers chronotopize and futurize QOL for the whole extended household within the intergenerational temporal space by focusing on stable input–outcome pathways. Based on the evidence, we propose QOL as chronotopefication and futurization framework (QOL‐CFF). The framework suggests that subsistence consumers construct QOL as chronotope building, futurized and having a symbolic effect. They consider current agonies as a foundation for future building.     

The challenges of supporting necessity entrepreneurs: Understanding loan officer exit in microfinance

Necessity entrepreneurship can serve as a pathway out of poverty for low-income individuals, with microfinance often providing important financial support. Yet the relational lending strategies common among microfinance institutions may influence loan officer turnover and, in turn, compromise entrepreneurs' access to credit. While there is some reason to suspect that relational lending with poor entrepreneurs will increase retention, we propose that serving the poor may make loan officers more likely to quit: loan officers in commercial microfinance institutions are unlikely to have strong commitments to poverty alleviation and may be taxed by the challenging fieldwork associated with lending in poor areas. Qualitative and quantitative data from a microfinance bank in Latin America support our expectations, showing that exit becomes more likely when loan officers' work involves more poor clients and that the effect is strongest when such work demands intensive fieldwork in low-income areas. Supplementary analyses of trends across the global microfinance industry demonstrate that poor clients have a stronger impact on exit in for-profits than non-profits, suggesting that prosocial motives among non-profit employees may have a buffering effect. Overall, our study reveals how providing services to necessity entrepreneurs can have negative, unexpected consequences for frontline employees.     

Economic impact of a private sector micro-financing scheme in South Dakota

While poverty rates on Native American Indian reservations are triple the US average. Small business incubation programs, available elsewhere in the US, scarcely exist on the Native American Indian Reservations (NAIRs). Our unique study tests the effects of the Lakota Fund (LF), a private sector small business development initiative on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, on the economic development of the NAIRs. Our objective is to determine whether the SBA-like programs (loans, training, and consulting) can improve economic conditions. The 1980–2006 annual county-level (Shannon Co. is ‘treatment,’and Todd Co. is ‘control’) data are a natural experiment. Results indicate that the LF inception and duration significantly raised real per capita income (RPCI)—suggesting not only the success of the LF, but support for the broader notion that privately funded small business initiatives can be used to support economic development of isolated impoverished groups within the US economy.     

Bankers at the gate: Microfinance and the high cost of borrowed logics

In this paper we examine how the interaction between influences of commercial banking and poverty alleviation shaped the evolution of modern microfinance. Using institutional theory as a lens, we observe that the commercial banking logic increasingly displaced the microfinance field's foundational poverty alleviation and development principles over time. We argue that this process of displacement can occur inadvertently as organizations that embody multiple logics draw disproportionately on only one of those logics when developing legitimating accounts of their activity to stakeholders. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of permeability – the extent to which the elements of a logic are ambiguous and loosely coupled – to explain why some logics may be more or less open to the influence of other logics. We conclude by discussing implications for entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation more generally.     

Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: What are the Links?

This paper asks whether a developing country's own trade liberalisation could translate into increased poverty, and what information would be required to identify whether it will do so. It plots the channels through which such effects might operate, identifying the static effects via four broad groups of institutions – households, distribution channels, factor markets and government – and the dynamic issues of volatility, long–term economic growth, and short–term adjustment stresses. An increase in the price of something a household sells (labour, good, service) increases its welfare. Thus, the paper first explores the likely effects of trade liberalisation on the prices of goods and services, taking into account the distribution sector. Also critical is whether trade reform creates or destroys markets. Trade reform is also likely to affects factor prices – of which the wages of the unskilled is the most important for poverty purposes. If reform boosts the demand for labour–intensive products, it boosts the demand for labour and wages and/or employment will increase. However, not all developing countries are relatively abundant in unskilled labour and trade can boost demand for semi–skilled rather than unskilled, labour. Hence poverty alleviation is not guaranteed. Trade reform can affect tariff revenue, but much less frequently and adversely than is popularly imagined. Even if it does, it is a political decision, not a law of nature, that the poor should suffer the resulting new taxes or cuts in government expenditure. Opening up the economy can reduce risk and variability because world markets are usually more stable than domestic ones. But sometimes it will increase them because stabilisation schemes are undermined or because residents switch to riskier activities. The non–poor can generally tide themselves over adjustment shocks from a liberalisation, so public policy should focus on whether the initially poor and near temporary, setbacks. The key to sustained poverty alleviation is economic growth. There is little reason to fear that growth will not boost the incomes of the poor. Similarly, while the argument that openness stimulates long–run growth has still not been completely proven, there is every presumption that it will.     

Appraisal of women's work

Women's work in the developing country of India contributes to sectoral production in the national economy and household production in the family economy. A conceptual framework based on systems exchange assumption classifies women's work as formal sector, informal sector, household production and home production activities. Various economic evaluation methods related to unpaid household work can be applied to appraise the value of women's work. Farm women of Haryana have a 13-hour workday in farm, dairy and home sectors. The estimated monetary value of the 13-hour workday is Rs. 15–55.     

A Framework for Effective Global Marketing for Developing Country Public Sector Enterprises

Public sector organizations show distinct differences in structure, management, philosophy, and performance when compared to private sector organizations. In recent years, however, public sector organizations have emerged as important income contributors and a potent technology source to developing countries through their active internalization efforts. Public sector organizations have begun to enter and operate in international markets, due to the home-country push and host-country pull factors. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the globalization process of developing country public sector enterprises and develop a marketing oriented framework for effective internalization process.     

Financial sector development and access to finance. Does size say it all?

This paper analyzes what features of financial systems can strengthen the linkages between banks and economic development. We investigate whether a set of banking and capital market characteristics can improve the ability of banks to provide increased credit flows to the private sector, while simultaneously improving financial inclusion for the poor. We analyze the determinants of both macro-level lending conditions and micro-level access to finance using a set of Panel Vector Error Correction Models and GMM estimations in a panel of 138 countries for the 2002–2009 time periods. Results converge to suggest that rather than focusing solely on banking sector size, financial policy should seek to foster inter banks competition, develop appropriate macro-prudential safeguards, promote capital market development. In addition, improved access to finance requires adequate civil rights and support to entrepreneurship.     

陕西实施精准扶贫战略个案研究——以岚皋县为例

在全面建设小康社会的背景下,从岚皋县个案展开对陕西省脱贫攻坚情况的研究。思路为:基于精准扶贫理论,从产业脱贫、易地搬迁脱贫、生态脱贫、教育脱贫、医疗脱贫、就业脱贫、旅游脱贫、兜底脱贫、金融扶贫等角度深入阐述和总结岚皋县脱贫经验,并建议加强岚皋富硒茶的品牌建设和保护生态环境。