NETWORK BASED BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION TARGETING THE BOP MARKET

Through innovation of products, process and business models targeting the needs of 4 billion poorpeople living at "the base of pyramid" (BoP) (Prahalad & Hart 2002) in developing countries theprivate sector can actively support poverty alleviation and at the same time reach new untouchedmarket. - A market is estimated a value of 5.3 trillion US$ (Hammond, Kramer, Tran, Kratz 2007).A number of researchers has dealt with the BoP - market potential and not least tried to understandhow to penetrate this apparent blue ocean. Two distinct lines of thought when targeting BoP marketsin developing countries seems to show up in the literature:The technological line - exemplified by the - exemplified by the Life Straw business model - a high tech "straw" consisting of 12 chemical filters to purify water - an example of technology driveninnovation to meet the BoP demands for clean water (Kandachar & Halme 2008).The market and customer line - exemplified by soap producers trying to penetrate the BoPline - exemplified by soap producers trying to penetrate the BoP market through product adaptation selling soap in smaller packages (Hart & Christensen2002, Prahalad 2006).Based on the case study on access2innovation (www.access2innovation.com) this paper discuss aupcoming new strategy within the BoP paradigm that lies within a bottom-up driven public-privatecivil- society BoP approach - as network based BoP innovation potentially could open new- as network based BoP innovation potentially could open new possibilities to product and service development to the BoP market.