Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | January 2018

The Scope of Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Middle and Lower Income Countries

by V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

Abstract

Using World Bank data, the note defines the Base of the Pyramid population as the 4.76 billion people living on less than $10/day. It briefly reviews the perspectives of key business articles that address this market, notably C.K Prahalad’s work on Bottom of the Pyramid, and Porter and Kramer’s article on Creating Shared Value. The note then provides a somewhat more extensive (yet brief) review of the literature from Development Economics literature, before turning to the perspective offered by the HBS, MBA, course on Business at the Base of the Pyramid (BBOP). The note concludes with a brief statistical tour of the key needs that characterize this market segment, namely: Nutrition, Healthcare, Education, Sanitation, Clean Water & Energy, Financial Inclusion, and Affordable Housing.

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Social Issues; Human Needs; Segmentation;

Language: English Format: Print 23 pages Educators

Citation:

Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Tricia Gregg. "The Scope of Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Middle and Lower Income Countries." Harvard Business School Technical Note 518-032, January 2018.

About the Author

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V. Kasturi Rangan
Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing
Marketing

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