Building the BoP Producer Ecosystem: The Evolving Engagement of F abindia with I ndian Handloom Artisans

Abstract

Recent research on the base of the pyramid (BoP) has called on firms to initiate market‐driven interventions directed at theBoPpopulation with the objective of identifying and pursuing mutually profitable means of attaining meaningful poverty alleviation outcomes. In response, firms as well as scholars have engaged at length with the creation of new products and services for theBoPconsumer but paid far less attention to theBoPproducer—a member of theBoPpopulation who creates value by producing goods and services for sale in nonlocal markets. Additionally, extant studies have largely focused on snapshot views ofBoPinterventions by firms, thereby limiting our understanding of the emergence of meaningful poverty‐alleviating outcomes over time from these interventions. This paper seeks to redirect attention toward the dynamic of the long‐term engagement between the firm and theBoPproducer. Using rich qualitative data fromFabindia—anIndian handloom retailer—this paper examines how the engagement betweenFabindia and communities of handloom artisans inIndia has persisted over a period of five decades. We found that, even as it encountered changes in the external environment and pursued newer organizational goals,Fabindia repeatedly renewed its engagement with handloom artisans and facilitated progression in poverty‐alleviation outcomes. Building on the insights from the case study, this paper presents a process model that highlights the role of innovative management practices in sustaining engagements between firms andBoPproducers over time. Additionally, this paper proposes the concept of the “bridging enterprise”—a business enterprise that originates at the intersection of specificBoPcommunities and the corresponding nonlocal markets—as an interpreter and innovator reconciling the interests of stakeholders across the pyramid.

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