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Abstract

‘Israeli Sunshine girl’, Sivan Borowich-Ya'ari had showcased to the world that social innovations would bring in the desired change to the society. Her foundation ‘Innovation: Africa’ had brought light to nearly half a million people belonging to countries of Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Israeli-backed solar energy projects provided clean water, food, medical care, refrigeration, light bulbs, vaccines and education to remote regions of rural Africa. With her sustainable business model, rural women in Africa had maintained their solar installations with money got through recharging of cell phones. The unfavourable conditions existing in Africa in terms of infrastructure, paucity of funds, bureaucratic hurdles and import taxes did not deter Sivan from scaling up her operations. Success of social innovations like ‘Innovation: Africa’ had made businesses to reconsider the way they were conducted. They realised that well developed social initiatives would bring in more benefits and improve the bottom line of their organisations. But contradictory views were also expressed by many stating that social initiatives of corporates were a more sophisticated form of capitalism and a hypocritical window-dressing intended for profit maximisation and for their own benefits. The case study will attempt to analyse how social innovations like ‘Innovation: Africa’ was successful and whether these social initiatives were undertaken by organisations on a moral standing or to perpetuate their own self-interest. In doing so, it will also analyse if these social innovations were intended to capitalise ‘the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’.
Location:
Other setting(s):
2014

About

Abstract

‘Israeli Sunshine girl’, Sivan Borowich-Ya'ari had showcased to the world that social innovations would bring in the desired change to the society. Her foundation ‘Innovation: Africa’ had brought light to nearly half a million people belonging to countries of Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Israeli-backed solar energy projects provided clean water, food, medical care, refrigeration, light bulbs, vaccines and education to remote regions of rural Africa. With her sustainable business model, rural women in Africa had maintained their solar installations with money got through recharging of cell phones. The unfavourable conditions existing in Africa in terms of infrastructure, paucity of funds, bureaucratic hurdles and import taxes did not deter Sivan from scaling up her operations. Success of social innovations like ‘Innovation: Africa’ had made businesses to reconsider the way they were conducted. They realised that well developed social initiatives would bring in more benefits and improve the bottom line of their organisations. But contradictory views were also expressed by many stating that social initiatives of corporates were a more sophisticated form of capitalism and a hypocritical window-dressing intended for profit maximisation and for their own benefits. The case study will attempt to analyse how social innovations like ‘Innovation: Africa’ was successful and whether these social initiatives were undertaken by organisations on a moral standing or to perpetuate their own self-interest. In doing so, it will also analyse if these social innovations were intended to capitalise ‘the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’.

Settings

Location:
Other setting(s):
2014

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