Impact at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’: The Role of Social Capital in Capability Development and Community Empowerment
基于阿马蒂亚·森的能力发展理论和社会资本文献，提出一个更嵌入社会、以社区为中心的金字塔底层（BoP）方法，通过增强社区与资源丰富网络的社会资本并保留现有社会资本，来评估商业举措是否促进能力转移和保留。
abstract Rooted in the notion of inclusive capitalism, the Bottom‐of‐the‐Pyramid (BoP) approach argues for the simultaneous pursuit of profit and social welfare by creating markets for the poor. This idea has been both celebrated and criticized in the literature. We do neither in this paper. Instead, by leveraging insights from Amartya Sen's work on capability development and the literature on social capital, we offer a more socially embedded and community‐centric BoP approach. By redefining poverty not just as a lack of income, but also as a lack of ‘capabilities’ in Sen's sense that can be developed through leveraging social capital, we offer a systemic framework for understanding the societal impact of business‐driven ventures in the BoP and empowering BoP communities through these ventures. Specifically, we argue that any business initiative in the BoP ought to be evaluated on the basis of whether it advances capability transfer and retention by (a) enhancing the social capital between a particular community and other more resource rich networks, and (b) preserving the existing social capital in the community.