DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID- A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Abstract
The world is moving towards digitalization and India is following the global trends quite diligently. As a country, within India we have both ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ where it will not be wrong to say that the Bharat dominates in terms of its population. Bharat signifies the rural India, which, population wise dominates the rest of India and because of its size attracts both the Indian and the global marketer. The reasons for the same could possibly be, population of Bharat and its diversity in terms of culture and traditions and their purchase and consumption pattern of goods, services and ideas. The ‘Bharat’ side of India is much receptive than ever before to any entrepreneurial idea especially because of the easy availability of mobile phone, its services and internet. New concepts are evolving, and digital entrepreneurship is thus quite a talked about concept in today’s time. As a layman one could say that ‘Digital entrepreneurship’ as a concept is a business idea that trails a digital route or influences digital technology. But can a digital businessperson deliver and meet the needs of all levels of the people pyramid is a question that needs to be answered. With the growth in the diffusion of the mobile telephones and internet providers in the country one is witnessing a phenomenon where the digital businesspersons are making considerable money by presenting products and services to fulfill the needs of the people at the highest and the intermediate level of the pyramid. But to reach out to the bottom of the pyramid such entrepreneurs must cross hurdles like relatively poor network, lack of education amongst the users of the products and services, smaller presence of smartphones and the very basic electricity issue. Bottom of the pyramid is primarily defined based on the income of the family and this market is a mix of urban and rural population, where the latter predominates. Therefore, it is important to comprehend how a digital entrepreneur meets the needs of the people at the lowermost of the pyramid in an unrelenting manner given the socio, economic and geopolitical setting in which the people at the bottommost of the pyramid live.
The paper presents a conceptual model explaining the factors that a digital entrepreneur must consider while offering his product or services to the market that is at the bottom of the pyramid in a relatively sustained manner. The conceptual model establishes relationship between various factors that influence the decision-making process of a BoP customer while making a purchase through the digital route. These factors have been categorized under the 4As of the marketing mix and include awareness, availability, affordability and acceptability. The paper also throws light on the hurdles a digital entrepreneur might encounter while reaching out to the people at the nethermost of the pyramid.
Keywords:
Bottom of the Pyramid, Conceptual Framework to win over BoP, Co-CreationDownloads
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