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Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management pp 1–7Cite as

Base of the Pyramid

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Synonyms

BOP; Bottom of the Pyramid

Description

Base of the Pyramid (also referred to as Bottom of the Pyramid or simply BOP) is a term that refers to the poorest socioeconomic segment that is not well integrated into the formal economy (London and Hart 2011). The term has been popularized by management scholar C.K. Prahalad (2004) (see “Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid”), who argues that the pursuit of profits by private enterprises can alleviate poverty at the base of the economic pyramid. Through the lens of inclusive capitalism (Prahalad and Hart 2002), the world’s poorest population is perceived not as victims and recipients of charitable giving but as value-demanding consumers and highly resourceful innovative entrepreneurs (Simanis and Hart 2006). Business ventures at the BOP comprise a broad range of business models designed to target the poorest segments of society (London and Hart 2011). They pursue “a business and development strategy grounded in a synergistic relationship...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management Theory, Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland

    Maria Roszkowska-Menkes

Authors
  1. Maria Roszkowska-Menkes
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Correspondence to Maria Roszkowska-Menkes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. London Metropolitan University, Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law London Metropolitan University, London, UK

    Dr. Samuel Idowu

  2. Cologne Business School, Ingolstadt, Germany

    Prof. Dr. René Schmidpeter

  3. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Prof. Nicholas Capaldi

  4. International Training Centre of the IL, International Labor Organization, Turin, Italy

    Prof. Dr. Liangrong Zu

  5. Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Prof. Dr. Mara Del Baldo

  6. Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

    Rute Abreu

Section Editor information

  1. Canberra Law School, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Benedict Sheehy PhD

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Roszkowska-Menkes, M. (2022). Base of the Pyramid. In: Idowu, S., Schmidpeter, R., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Del Baldo, M., Abreu, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_392-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_392-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

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