Essay on Pralahad's book

A business strategy contribution to poverty alleviation and sustainable development: the
Base-of-the-Pyramid theory´s validity and inadequacies
Anna-Katharine Lenz and Monica Pinhanez

2ème Congrès TRANSFORMARE 19‐20 mars 2012, Paris

A business strategy contribution to poverty alleviation and sustainable development: the
Base-of-the-Pyramid theory´s validity and inadequacies.

Authors: Anna-Katharine Lenz and Monica Pinhanez

Abstract: This paper analyzes the concepts of partnership, innovation and poverty alleviation in the Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) theory and its intersection with the literature on
International Development.

It contributes to the understanding of sustainability and

development by pointing out the complementarities and limitations for each concept. We conclude the paper pointing out the potential contribution of BoP strategies for achieving eradicating poverty and reaching sustainable development.

1. Introduction
Sustainability, first defined in the Brundtland report 1997, proposes a development strategythat satisfies the needs of the present generation without limiting the possibilities of future generations to satisfy their own needs (Brundtland Commission, 1987; Marrewijk,
2003). Its ethical content derives from the idea that companies may work in non-sustainable ways, despite not hurting any law. Therefore, scholars, policy makers and activists argue for a voluntary commitment to follow a sustainable development (Garriga & Melé, 2004). Base-ofthe-Pyramid (BoP) approaches provides a way to contribute to sustainable development approach and should be take into consideration more often by the academic and policy world, because its projects may have higher scale effect than projects that are not formulated within its framework.
While a large part of the literature focuses on the establishment of business

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