The role of proximity in business model design: Making business models work for those at the bottom of the pyramid

Mason, Katy; Chakrabarti, Ronika

Abstract

This paper explores the role of proximity in designing business models that work for those at the BoP. BoP markets represent an extreme setting where actors struggle to access and organise limited resources and develop appropriate socio-economic-political practices. Drawing on Boschma's (2005) concept of proximity, we analyse three historical cases of business at the BoP to uncover the spatial-temporal dimensions of business model design in practice. Findings suggest that 1) business model design practices iteratively structure connections with markets and open up new spaces for market activity. This means that business models are necessarily understood as plastic and continuously in-the-making; 2) by taking into account the stability and change of proximity dimensions and the dynamics between them as they relate to business activities, managers are better equipped to identity opportunities that create, shape and connect with markets; and 3) the spatial-temporal dynamic of the business model proximities framework reveals that some proximities strengthen others through time, with negative and positive consequences

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Aug 28, 2016
• Publication Date: 2017-02
• Deposit Date: Feb 4, 2025
• Journal: Industrial Marketing Management
• Print ISSN: 0019-8501
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Pages: 67-80
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.08.005
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The role of proximity in business model design: Making business models work for those at the bottom of the pyramid; Journal Title: Industrial Marketing Management; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.08.005; Content Type: article; Copyright: Crown Copyright © 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.