Entry modes and the impact of mobile microfinance at the base of the pyramid : scenarios of “My village phone” in Egypt

Mohamad, MRA; Wood-Harper, T; Ramlogan, R

Abstract

The expansion of mobile telecoms in the Egyptian market has contributed to different development paradigms. The entry mode followed by the telecoms accessing the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) in Egypt identifies which development paradigm will take place in the future. Our evidence from “My Village Phone” case study reveals paradigms such as “Pro-poor”, “Para-poor”, “Per-poor”, “Per-poor exports” and “Networked” are expected to take place, if telecoms followed the BoP entry mode. However, following other entry modes such as “Capitalists mode”, “Skimming mode”, “Social responsibility mode”, or “Sustainability mode” might lead to limited development impact. In terms of policy, we offer a testable business model for the candidate telecom(s) expected to hold the fourth mobile license. In terms of theory, we offer a conceptual framework “the balance of power “(Albin, 1997; Jasperson et al., 2002) that is drawn from three social science domains, systems thinking, systemic foresight, and theories of power.

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 29, 2018
• Publisher: IGI Global
• Pages: 46-82
• Book Title: Organizational Innovation and IT Governance in Emerging Economies
• ISBN: 9781466673328
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-7332-8.ch013
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-7332-8.ch013
• Related Public URLs: http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-7332-8
• Additional Information: Funders : Egyptian Government;Vodafone Egypt