As part of the IDMODEL project, TMCD Director, Xiaolan Fu co-authored a paper with IDMODEL Co-Principal Investigator, Prof Pervez Ghauri titled 'Platform-based business model and entrepreneurs from Base of the Pyramid'. 

Using a case study of Kuaishou, a short video platform in China, the paper explored how such platform-based business model innovation can foster entrepreneurship from the base of the pyramid (BOP) and include poor people into value creation activities by sharing their skills, experiences and their normal farming and life activities.

Through an in-depth case study of a successful platform which has hundreds of millions of active users from the BOP, it developed a content-based new inclusive digital business model for grassroot entrepreneurs; and identified the mechanisms that makes such a platform fair and inclusive for the poor.

The paper revealed how a digital technology-driven model can be designed to overcome the physical and institutional constraints which typically limits the participation of BOP members in economic activities. Specifically, it illustrated how reducing the barriers to the participation of BOP members in digital platforms can promote their involvement in value creation while empowering them socially and economically.

The other co-authors of the paper are Prof Xiaoqiang Xing of UIBE Business School, University of International Business and Economics, China and Nwamaka Chidera Ogbonna, TMCD Researcher.