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Abstract: The concept of inclusive business was built on the idea of identifying sustainable business solutions with a socio-economical impact in low-income population. Although innovation is accepted as crucial to develop inclusive business initiatives there is a lack of works that address how innovation is taking place. This paper presents preliminary findings of a research intended to understand how inclusive business models are generating value and how innovation contributes to it. 49 case studies were examined to identify key drivers, benefits and innovation role. Three kinds of drivers prevails: market, business and government. For companies, benefits incudes generating profits, developing new markets and strengthening supply chains. For low-income communities, benefits include meeting basic needs and enabling them to be more productive. The cases show that technological innovation enables companies to deal with the challenges that arise when they are dealing with low-income markets.
Keywords: Inclusive business; business model innovation; technological innovation; value generation; business drivers; bottom of pyramid; low-income communities; public policies.
1 Introduction
Numerous inclusive business initiatives has been carried out since the term was coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in 2005. These initiatives has been implemented in different countries, sectors, facing different challenges and barriers, addressing different objectives and involving low-income people in the value chain. Many of these initiatives have been analysed in the form of case studies, which had generated important understanding about critical issues and success factors in inclusive business. However, many of these documents analyse the implementation of inclusive business models in an isolated manner. The cumulated case studies brings an opportunity for a more in-depth analysis in a systematic way oriented to describe more relevant categories that characterize inclusive business models, specifically understand the role on innovation in the generation of value in inclusive business. A thorough identification and comprehension of relevant elements that determine inclusive business value creation will be of great value for different stakeholders, including multilateral agencies to define politics and tools to guide and assist inclusive business initiatives, as well as private companies how wants to lead inclusive business in the design of strategies and business models, among others.
Thus, this work focus on the need of understanding how inclusive business models are generating value for low-income...