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Building Partnerships to Create Social and Economic Value at the Base of the Global Development Pyramid

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  • Jerry Calton
  • Patricia Werhane
  • Laura Hartman
  • David Bevan

Abstract

This paper builds on London and Hart’s critique that Prahalad’s best-selling book prompted a unilateral effort to find a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Prahalad’s instrumental, firm-centered construction suggests, perhaps unintentionally, a buccaneering style of business enterprise devoted to capturing markets rather than enabling new socially entrepreneurial ventures for those otherwise trapped in conditions of extreme poverty. London and Hart reframe Prahalad’s insight into direct global business enterprise toward “creating a fortune with the base of the pyramid” (p. xi) rather than at the BoP. This shift in language requires a recalibration of strategic focus, we argue, and will necessitate implementation of “moral imagination” to formulate new mental models that can frame the possibility of local entrepreneurs working collaboratively and discursively with development partners drawn from civil society, corporate, and government sectors. Successful partnerships will arise from interactive processes of emergent, co-creative learning within a shared problem domain or “community of practice”. We call attention to three related pluralist framings of situated learning within such communities of practice: (1) decentered stakeholder networks; (2) global action networks; and (3) a focus on “faces and places” as a cognitive lens to humanize and locally situate diverse inhabitants within base of the pyramid partnership projects. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Jerry Calton & Patricia Werhane & Laura Hartman & David Bevan, 2013. "Building Partnerships to Create Social and Economic Value at the Base of the Global Development Pyramid," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 721-733, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:117:y:2013:i:4:p:721-733
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1716-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. O’Connell, Lenahan L. & Stephens, Carroll U. & Betz, Michael & Shepard, Jon M. & Hendry, Jamie R., 2005. "An Organizational Field Approach to Corporate Rationality: The Role of Stakeholder Activism," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 93-111, January.
    2. Edward Freeman, R. & Phillips, Robert A., 2002. "Stakeholder Theory: A Libertarian Defense," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 331-349, July.
    3. Jerry Calton, 2006. "Social Contracting in a Pluralist Process of Moral Sense Making: A Dialogic Twist on the ISCT," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 329-346, October.
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