Assessing the attractiveness & Feasibility of doing business in the BoP Market – A Mixed Method Approach using ABCD Analysis Technique

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims at a quantitative analysis of the ABCD framework of analysis regarding the Base of the Pyramid market - its attractiveness’, serviceability, profitability, and sustainable business generation at the BoP from the stakeholders’ perspectives.

Design: The study follows a systematic literature review of ABCD analysis techniques and BoP to identify factors and elemental analysis under the ABCD framework. For the quantitative analysis, the focus group method is adopted by assigning the weights and the ratings to the constructs of the critical constituent elements.

Findings: The ABCD analysis framework is a tool of analysis that is conveniently designed to identify the various key attributes, and to analyze the advantages, benefits, constraints, and disadvantages of the critical constituent elements of any business, concepts, systems, strategies, and business domains. In this study on the attractiveness and feasibility of the Bottom of the Pyramid market ABCD quantitative analysis was found appropriate and very useful to quantitatively assess the key attributes, critical elements, and their summative scores to develop a feasible business model to tap the BoP segment successfully.

Originality value: This paper extensively studies the ABCD analysis framework and deploys the framework to study the BoP segment. Though several ABCD analyses are published related to other domains of business, this paper opens the door to new research in the area of assessment of the attractiveness and feasibility of the BoP business in India by finding the critical constituent elements and underlining its importance in doing sustainable and scalable business in the BoP segment.

Paper Type: Empirical Paper.