Microfranchising offers a thorough-going and impartial analysis of microfranchising, covering both practice and theory. . . The tome s well documented chapters provide an objective overview of the various aspects of microfranchising and outline its main characteristics. . . This book should be read by all those involved in, or concerned by, the fight against poverty who are looking for a complete overview of microfranchising. The various actors of the entrepreneurial world will also find much in the volume of interest to them. . . Academics will find well documented sources, complete with operational examples, which will help them to present action projects to their students. Microfranchising and, more generally, micro-entrepreneurship, represent a vast field of research that will be of great interest to scholars working in the field of entrepreneurship. Fairbourne, Gibson and Dyer s book not only offers a valuable introduction to micro-entrepreneurship , but demonstrates the human side of entrepreneurship as a whole. Frédéric Demerens, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Microfranchising has clues and cautions to help create wealth and lift humanity from poverty by energizing communities, families and individuals to profit-making productivity in cooperation with guidance, education, and other resources from established businesses, financial institutions and philanthropists. Anyone interested in shrinking the bottom of the world s income and wealth pyramid to create real widespread sustainability and all the consequent social and health benefits should read this book. Joseph H. Astrachan, Kennesaw State University, US What do buying honey, renting mobile phones and fitting prescription glasses have in common? Answer: they are all activities that have expanded in low-income countries through microfranchising. This book brings together the ideas of researchers and social entrepreneurs at the heart of a movement to turn microfranchising into a mechanism for sustainable poverty reduction on a scale to match microfinance. A seductive mix of advocacy and realism, analysis and case-study provides readers with the ingredients to make up their own mind about the potential of microfranchising as a development tool. James G. Copestake, University of Bath, UK Poverty remains one of the most intractable problems in the developing world. Microfranchising offers great promise in alleviating poverty by aiding in the foundation of locally owned businesses. Microfranchising is defined as small businesses whose start-up costs are minimal and whose concepts and operations are easily replicated. It involves the systematizing of microenterprises to create and replicate turnkey businesses for the poor. With the awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, attention has increased on this remarkable concept. This unique book provides an overview of the need to alleviate poverty and what methods have been used in the past to do so (e.g. microcredit). It then introduces the concept of the microfranchise and discusses how this business model can be used in poverty alleviation. Different models of microfranchising are reviewed and specific case studies highlighted to show how it has worked in different parts of the world. The book concludes with a discussion of the advantages as well as the potential problems and pitfalls that accompany microfranchising. This book is a must read for business scholars and economists, practitioners and lenders, members of NGOs dedicated to poverty alleviation and anyone else who is interested in learning about an innovative, business focused tool to alleviate poverty.

It is increasingly clear that fifty years of international development have done little to reduce poverty in Africa. Indeed, more and more academics and practitioners are highlighting the detrimental effect of traditional development – as carried out by international agencies and NGOs – which often leads to dependency, inefficiency, waste and poor governance. Yet there is a new movement that is surging ahead in its attempt to reduce poverty and generate wealth in Africa: microfranchising. Set up by pioneering organizations such as VisionSpring and HealthStore, microfranchising is based on one of the most successful market-based models in Western economies: franchising. From McDonald's to Coca-Cola, franchising has proven itself to be an effective and replicable way of scaling up a business rapidly in the Western context. It is only recently that members of the growing body of social entrepreneurs have turned to the franchise model as one of the responses to Africa's endemic economic stagnation. And the results have been inspiring: instead of the dependency generated by traditional charity development projects, these new social capitalists have generated enterprise and self-sustainability in the most challenging environments of rural Africa. This long-needed book looks at the growth in microfranchising as a tool to generate wealth among poor communities in Africa. The book traces the evolution of the concept of microfranchising, from its foundation in Western models to its implementation in African countries today. It provides practical steps from the world's leading experts on how to set up a microfranchise, from recruiting franchisees, to building a brand and a supply chain. It gives case studies of successful microfranchises, told by the enterprises themselves. It continues with a theoretical analysis of the place of microfranchising within global social entrepreneurship. It ends with a look at the future for microfranchising, with recommendations for development. Edited by the former CEO of SolarAid, which created the Sunny Money microfranchise, the book provides a ground-breaking set of case studies and analysis of microfranchising for development. It brings together academics and practitioners to provide context, analysis and practical advice. Indeed, it provides the theory, the practical advice and the case studies to guide any entrepreneur, NGO, business or government interested in setting up their own microfranchise scheme.

This compendium contains 20 case studies of public programmes in European countries that are successfully supporting business creation by people from disadvantaged and under-represented groups in entrepreneurship.

Interfirm networks include franchising, retail and service chains, cooperatives, financial networks, joint ventures, strategic alliances, licensing, public-private partnerships and new network forms in the digital economy. This book gathers the latest research studies that approach these networks – and the creation of innovation under the conditions of a complex, dynamic, knowledge-intensive and digital economy – from an interdisciplinary perspective. The studies, all of which were written by respected experts, explore how firms can improve their competitiveness by securing access to innovation, knowledge, complementary resources and capabilities otherwise not available to them. In addition, they highlight how, driven by an unpredictable environment, firms embedded in inter-organizational networks are increasingly transforming from co-operators to collaborators and valuable co-creators of innovation.

Franchising Globally is first of its kind to examine franchising both from an entrepreneurial and from an international perspective. The book includes theoretical discussions and practical examples of international franchising as well as both micro and macro studies of franchising environments in different parts of the world.

An estimated one billion individuals in both developed and developing nations can be defined as necessity entrepreneurs; individuals who have no other viable option for licit income than to start a small, income generating activity. However, the emphasis on providing business and leadership training to necessity entrepreneurs is only just gaining traction. This book provides the first-known global analysis dedicated exclusively to organizations from both the public and private sectors that are specifically involved with microenterprise education for necessity entrepreneurs. The authors provide a pragmatic synopsis and evaluate the efficacy of the programs that have been, currently are, or will soon be teaching and/or training necessity entrepreneurs around the globe.

Social franchising represents a third generation form of franchising development, after trade-name and business-format franchising. At the intersection of social enterprise and micro finance literatures, this book reviews a variety of social franchising formats across a number of developing countries.

"... the practice of barefoot economics requires more than simply the lived experience of poverty-related phenomena. In contrast to the prevailing positivist paradigm within the scientific discipline of economics that tends to cultivate particular ways of economic thinking by taking their linguistic presuppositions for granted, barefoot economics involves challenging one's own horizon of possibility for economic thought by putting commonly accepted academic jargon in abeyance."

There is a growing realization that business development is the most effective weapon in fighting world poverty. How the for-profit model can be harnessed to provide the poor with a share in the world's prosperity is discussed through actual cases, and nested in innovative theories of business, social sciences, and philosophy.

The theme of NICOM 2008 being held between January 9 to 11, 2008 is 'Strategies and Trends in Marketing: A New Economy Perspective'. The issues, challenges and dimensions of the emerging scenario are grouped into the following sub-themes. 'Marketing Information System' brings together scholarly contributions on Marketing Research and Analytics, Business Intelligence and Forecasting Tools, Data Mining in Marketing and Decision Support System, Knowledge Management and Environment Sensing for Marketing. The sub-theme 'Value Creation: New Paradigms' has deliberations on Marketing Innovations, Trends in Pricing Strategy, Diffusion of New Products and Marketing Mix Decisions. 'Value Delivery in Marketing' covers topics on Disintermediation, Re-intermediation, Managing Marketing Channels, Logistics and Technology and 3PL and 4PL. 'Managing Marketing Communication' looks at Managing Brands, Changing Face of Advertising, Marketing Communication on Internet, Managing Content and Blogging The New Marketing Tool. 'Marketing Metrics' gets together papers on measuring Performance, Expectations, Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Preferences, Awareness, Attitudes and Usage. 'Business Markets in New Economy' looks at Business Integration, Managing Suppliers, E-Marketplaces, Extended Organization and Managing Procurement. 'Marketing and Technology' debates on the issues in Process Automation, Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Managing Customer Data Bases, E-commerce and Technology, Customer Information Security, Retail and Technology and Managing Online Services. 'Interdisciplinary Studies' gives a platform for Cross Cultural Studies, Marketing of Financial Services, Marketing of Hospitality and Tourism, Marketing of Healthcare Services, Managing Services, Retail - the Changing Face and Ethical Issues in Marketing. This book is the result of publication of selected works out of over a hundred papers presented at the Conference. It is appropriately titled 'NEW AGE MARKETING: Emerging Realities'. It is divided into four parts in line with the theme and sub-themes of the Conference as follows: Part-A: Marketing and TechnologyPart-B: Value Creation and DeliveryPart-C: Changing Face of MarketingPart-D: Marketing Metrics