Frugal innovation: Some theoretical observations from innovation-economic and social-entrepreneurial perspectives

This chapter’s aims to link frugal innovation (FI) to some theoretical notions. First, it presents a brief overview of what FI is in order to identify characteristics that can be linked to theoretical notions. Second it links the concept of FI to 1) existing theoretical notions on profit-induced innovators and how these contribute to economic...

Housing is Dynamic, Not Static: Shifting the Development of Affordable Housing with Circular Materials and Methods in Kenya

In the built environment, the continuous growth and expansion of urban areas worldwide have become alarming. The built environment is continuously developing in an unsustainable manner, and in the mid-term future, resources will be scarce if practices are not changed. Therefore, new building materials and methods need to be implemented to...

Triggering Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives: Investigating the role of Dutch national government policy in triggering social entrepreneurship initiatives focusing on delivering affordable owner-occupied housing

The Netherlands is currently facing a shortage of affordable housing, specifically for middle-income households. These households with too much income to qualify for social housing but not enough to buy a home tend to squeeze into the free rental market increasingly. Housing specifically targeted at this group is known as intermediate housing,...

A typology of social entrepreneurs in bottom-up urban development

The emergence of organic planning practices in the Netherlands introduces new, non-conventional, local actors initiating bottom-up urban developments. Dissatisfied with conventional practices and using opportunities during the 2008 financial crisis, these actors aim to create social value, thus challenging prevailing institutions. Intrigued...

Factors influencing commercialization phase of social innovation and entrepreneurship: The case of rural renewable energy in Indonesia

Almost 25 million people in Indonesia are still living in poverty. Most of these people are living in a rural area. Energy provision is considered as one of the first steps towards poverty alleviation. However, there are many challenges faced by the Indonesian government in providing electricity to the rural area, because most of the non...

Impact First Development: an explorative study into (urban) development with the specific intention to create positive social impact

The world is experiencing climate change. Environmental problems are substantial and it's known that economic growth contributes to them. In addition, social inequality in society has grown. As a response, the concept of sustainable development has come up, but to date businesses find this hard to implement in their ways of working. As societal...

The future of Africa - Not what it used to be

Usually the present-day understanding of Africa doesn't look back beyond its colonial past. But the difficulties of African nation states with the Western system of a strong and accountable state and an open civil society have to be understood from the perspective of the precolonial system of in-group solidarity and vertical networks under...

Evaluating Social Impact Bonds: Developing a generic evaluation tool for Social Impact Bonds

This thesis looks into the development of a generic evaluation tool for Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). As a relatively new concept, SIBs are bringing change on important aspects of several sectors. The global financial crisis has not only exposed weaknesses in the financial sector, but also once again put the spotlight on the inequality that is...

Scaling up social businesses in developing markets

Most of the world's poor live in developing markets and face unmet needs in core areas such as education, health, energy, sanitation and financial services. This offers businesses a vast opportunity for growth as these economies emerge from low-income to middle-income status. Social businesses in particular address a social need while generating...

Light Coal: Development of a torrefaction reactor and business system for Himalayan India

Novel methods of the implementation of technology can be instrumental in aiding the growth of developing countries. Here, torrefaction has been investigated for its application to rural, Himalayan India, for the production of solid fuel briquettes from pine needles for sale to the food industry. Here, both technical and social aspects are...

Barriers & Niche Strategies for Scaling-Up Technology Firms at the Base of Pyramid

There are 4 billion people with income less than $3000 per year, which belong to the Base of Pyramid (BoP) market segment. These people share similar characteristics such as experiencing health problems, lack of education and poor living conditions. This state is realized by several entrepreneurs as potential business opportunities, which come...

Social Entrepreneurship in Kenya

The subject of this research is the promotion of social entrepreneurship in Kenya. There are almost no medium-sized businesses in Kenya which indicates that there is a lack of growth of the many micro and small enterprises. The research investigates what the pitfalls and barriers in culture and in the institutional framework for the country’s...

Rich insights for social entrepreneurs serving the poor

A case study with eight social entrepreneurs serving the BoP is done to examine which problems they experience in their development and to gain insight how managers can cope with these problems. The social entrepreneurs turn out to have problems with attaing a product market fit, organizing distribution and becoming financially sustainable....

Creating the integral engineer: Combining development education, sustainability, entrepreneurship and technology at Delft University of Technology

A modern engineer is more than a technical specialist. Training an integral engineer requires education in non-technical skills, including social and ethical aspects. Therefore, Delft University of Technology (DUT) introduced sustainable development and entrepreneurship into its bachelor and master programs. The university of the future is...

Creating the integral engineer: Combining development education, sustainability, entrepreneurship and technology at Delft University of Technology

A modern engineer is more than a technical specialist. Training an integral engineer requires education in non-technical skills, including social and ethical aspects. Therefore, Delft University of Technology (DUT) introduced sustainable development and entrepreneurship into its bachelor and master programs. The university of the future is...