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Technology Support for Small-scale Industry in Developing Countries: A Review of Concepts and Project Practices
In: Oxford development studies, Volume 29, Issue 1, p. 57-76
ISSN: 1469-9966
Acquisition of technological capability in development: A quantitative case study of Pakistan's capital goods sector
In: World development: the multi-disciplinary international journal devoted to the study and promotion of world development, Volume 25, Issue 3, p. 359-377
Acquisition of technological capability in development: A quantitative case study of Pakistan's capital goods sector
In: World development: the multi-disciplinary international journal devoted to the study and promotion of world development, Volume 25, Issue 3, p. 359-377
ISSN: 0305-750X
World Affairs Online
Removing barriers to plastic waste valorisation in Africa: Towards policies for value creation and capture in business ecosystems
In: Business strategy and development, Volume 7, Issue 1
ISSN: 2572-3170
AbstractStimulating plastic waste valorisation is suggested as an important way to address the growing waste problem in low‐income countries. However, policy interventions have not led to substantial waste valorisation, and the reasons for this have not been thoroughly analysed. We address this through a qualitative study of plastic waste in urban Zambia, which is representative of the policy and practice challenges in African plastic waste management. Using extensive data gathered through interviews, site visits and stakeholder meetings, we first conduct a business ecosystem analysis which provides a holistic view on value creation, capture, and destruction processes across all actors involved in the plastics lifecycle. Next, we map the barriers to value creation and capture by the system's main actors. Aggregation of these barriers reveals a low‐value trap, in which individual actors are disincentivized to increase waste valorisation activities. Finally, we analyse the reasons why policies aimed at waste valorisation have failed to break through this status quo. We find that policies have insufficiently addressed the barriers that keep the low‐value trap in place. Hence, they have not acted effectively on the root causes of systemic stagnation. By combining a business ecosystems analysis with an identification of barriers facing the individual actors in that ecosystem, our study is able to show why substantial plastic waste valorisation has not emerged despite policy incentives. Our analysis points toward concrete policy actions aimed at value redistribution and value increase, as key leverage points in the system to increase valorisation.
The empty rhetoric of poverty reduction at the base of the pyramid
In: Organization: the interdisciplinary journal of organization, theory and society, Volume 19, Issue 4, p. 481-505
ISSN: 1461-7323
The empty rhetoric of poverty reduction at the base of the pyramid
In: Organization: the interdisciplinary journal of organization, theory and society, Volume 19, Issue 4, p. 481-505
ISSN: 1461-7323
This article criticizes recent Bottom (or, Base) of the Pyramid (BoP) approaches for 'cancelling out politics' by obscuring unequal power relations at different societal levels and painting an optimistic picture of win-win outcomes that will make (some of) the world's biggest corporations richer while simultaneously adding a few crucial pennies to the pockets of the poor. The article is thus positioned within a growing stream of literature critical of BoP ideas, but it goes further than existing critiques by arguing that the current BoP discourse serves an important ideological function for global capital, specifically producing a discursive depoliticization of its corporate interventions in the lives of the world's poor. We argue that the poverty-reduction outcome of a BoP venture is contingent on its practice on the ground, which will inevitably be shaped by local and global power relations. In particular, we point to three cultural-political issues overlooked by the BoP discourse, which are vital in understanding the practice of business ventures at the BoP: adverse power relationships within poor communities; social-epistemological hierarchies between the poor and outsiders who administer poverty-reduction interventions; and local vulnerabilities induced by global currents in products, services, information and ideologies.
Do Local Knowledge Spillovers Matter for Development? An Empirical Study of Uruguay's Software Cluster
In: World development: the multi-disciplinary international journal devoted to the study and promotion of world development, Volume 36, Issue 10, p. 2004-2028
Determinants of innovation capability in small electronics and software firms in southeast England
In: Research policy: policy, management and economic studies of science, technology and innovation, Volume 31, Issue 7, p. 1053-1067
ISSN: 1873-7625
Innovation, Networking and Proximity: Lessons from Small High Technology Firms in the UK
In: Regional studies: official journal of the Regional Studies Association, Volume 36, Issue 1, p. 81-86
ISSN: 1360-0591
The determinants of technological capability: A cross‐country analysis
In: Oxford development studies, Volume 25, Issue 2, p. 189-207
ISSN: 1469-9966
Limits of the corporate-led market approach to off-grid energy access: A review
In: Environmental innovation and societal transitions, Volume 42, p. 27-43
ISSN: 2210-4224
The Jatropha biofuels sector in Tanzania 2005–2009: Evolution towards sustainability?
In: Research Policy, Volume 40, Issue 4, p. 618-636