Extending Access : Perspectives on Business Model Innovation in Water and Sanitation Service Provision
Sammanfattning: Many organizations are attempting to improve the well-being of people living in poverty, whether it be philanthropic, through offering transformative services, or buying into the doing well by doing good ethos of corporate Base of the Pyramid (BoP) strategies. Some of these efforts are being directed towards extending access to safely managed water and sanitation services to everyone. There are many factors that contribute to the complexity of reaching universal water and sanitation coverage including limited finance, cultural practices, and localized effects of climate change. Once a community has access, sustaining it can be hindered by poor design, maintenance, or governance.The aim of this dissertation is to examine the roles of business models and business model innovation in providing and later scaling water and sanitation services in low-income countries. In doing so, it brings together poverty alleviation and business model theories to address barriers specific to the water and sanitation sectors. This dissertation is a compilation of seven different papers that follow a case study approach. The cases used in these studies are of non-governmental organizations, social businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises, and multinational enterprises that work in the water and sanitation sector in low-income countries.The findings of this dissertation span theoretical levels: business models, business model innovation, and capability development and sectors: water and sanitation. Each paper contributes to the intersection of at least two of these factors, e.g., by classifying business models and business model innovations in water service providers or examining the multiple business models used by a single sanitation service provider.Overall, this dissertation has analysed key theories in market-based approaches to poverty alleviation with regard to business model thinking and provides insights into offering services and expanding social impact in BoP markets.
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