Embracing Solutions-Driven Innovation to Address Institutional Voids: The Case of Uber and the Middle of the Pyramid
通过优步在非洲扩张的案例，研究跨国公司如何利用解决方案驱动创新来应对新兴市场的制度空白，并创造市场机会，尤其关注经济金字塔中层。
This article explores solutions-driven innovation within an emerging market context, specifically in Africa, and how it can be utilized as a strategy by multinational enterprises to address institutional voids in these markets. Through a qualitative case study of Uber and their expansion into Africa, it demonstrates how solutions-driven innovation can create markets and mitigate distance and institutional voids in emerging market contexts. Uber created markets in Africa by developing a solution to consumers’ unmet needs. Such solutions-driven innovation can create opportunities not only at the bottom but also in the middle of the economic pyramid. But to be successful in African markets requires being mindful of how institutional voids necessitate innovative solutions and potentially different value propositions.