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Finding your feet in constrained markets: How bottom of pyramid social enterprises adjust to scale-up technology enabled health care delivery

Chaudhuri, A.; Praetorius, T.; Narayanamurthy, G.; Hasle, P.; Pereira, V.

Authors

T. Praetorius

G. Narayanamurthy

P. Hasle

V. Pereira



Abstract

Scaling social impact is a challenge that innovative social firms operating in resource-constrained Bottom of Pyramid markets must address while also ensuring profitability. However, how scaling occurs is scarcely understood. By building on the case studies of two healthcare social enterprises located in India, we make four important contributions to the understanding of the scaling up process. First, we demonstrate that entrepreneurial adjustments are guided by whether social firms prioritize alleviating their internal constraints or those faced by customers. Second, we show how such dynamic prioritization of constraints influences how firms mobilize resources and use operating routines from inception to market establishment. Third, we illustrate how, by pursuing resource mobilization strategies and operating routines, firms generate a ‘deep’ impact by expanding the number and type of their activities or a ‘broad’ one by increasing their membership base and/or geographic area. Finally, our findings show that the prioritization of internal or customer constraints leads firms to establish different sequences of elements of institutional legitimacy—i.e., normative, regulatory, and cognitive ones. We conclude by presenting the development of a process model for scaling-up social firms, by developing our propositions and by discussing the implications of our findings.

Citation

Chaudhuri, A., Praetorius, T., Narayanamurthy, G., Hasle, P., & Pereira, V. (2021). Finding your feet in constrained markets: How bottom of pyramid social enterprises adjust to scale-up technology enabled health care delivery. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 173, Article 121184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121184

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 27, 2021
Online Publication Date Sep 5, 2021
Publication Date 2021-12
Deposit Date Sep 7, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Print ISSN 0040-1625
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 173
Article Number 121184
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121184
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1241412

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