Understanding the challenges and strategic actions of social entrepreneurship at base of the pyramid

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the social entrepreneurship focussed organizations in the context of challenges faced and strategic actions adopted by them during the different stages of self-sustainable business model design and implementation. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical context involves the use of qualitative multi-case-based research methodology for data collection and analysis. The sampling involves undertaking the field study of social entrepreneurship oriented organizations, which have made the perceptible socio-economic difference in the lives of the rural and semi-urban population lying at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in India. Findings – The findings of this study are presented in two complementary stages. The first stage involves presenting the narrative incorporating the emergent themes and key characteristics of the social entrepreneurship focussed organizations based on the field-research based data collection and analysis. The second stage involves mapping the challenges with the strategic actions thereby formulating a challenge-action framework. Research limitations/implications – The paper strengthens the belief in social entrepreneurship as a viable alternative for creating a market-based ecosystem at the BoP. This paper highlights the conception of social entrepreneurship in terms of challenges and corresponding strategic actions. Practical implications – The derived challenge-action framework will enable the social entrepreneurs to learn, understand, design and implement a better informed and transparent market-based business models at the BoP resulting in reduced market risks and uncertainty. Social implications – The government needs to recognize the social entrepreneurs as partners having a separate legal entity as well as consider their inputs and on-field experiences while framing the policies in favor of the BoP. In addition, the government needs to facilitate the social entrepreneurs in leveraging the government network and institutions for reaching the BoP segment. Originality/value – This study is an original contribution to the field of social entrepreneurship in number of ways. The first contribution lies in reviewing the research literature from the definition perspective. The second contribution lies in reviewing the research literature to determine the key challenges faced by the social entrepreneurs at the BoP. The third contribution lies in identifying the propositions and conceptualizing the challenge-action framework depicting the challenges faced and strategic actions required by the social entrepreneurs for successful and sustainable social intervention at the BoP.