@article{oai:nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp:00015713, author = {ITO, Sanae}, journal = {国際開発研究フォーラム, Forum of International Development Studies}, month = {Mar}, note = {This article examines the growing debate concerning social business in order to understand its potential for promoting pro-poor growth. It first explores the meaning of pro-poor growth and suggests that social business may arguably be seen as one way of realizing pro-poor growth that promotes poor people's participation in growth processes. It then discusses social business that is targeted at 'the Bottom (or the Base) of the Pyramid (BOP)' market, and compares it to the appropriate technology movement which was popular in the 1970s and early 1980s but has run out of steam since then. It is suggested that the recent popularity of BOP business should be understood against the background of technological innovation and the growing number of low-income consumers in emerging markets. While advocates of BOP business see a win-win situation in which enterprise promotion and poverty reduction can be achieved at the same time, this article argues that these may not be compatible for two reasons. First, while many of the BOP businesses aim to solve the problem of poverty through applying market principles, they do not necessarily address deeper social and political questions that may underlie the problem of poverty. If the BOP businesses choose to remain politically neutral, aid-giving governments increasingly use industrial policy to help their countries' BOP businesses expand overseas, thus implicating them in the governments' political and economic agenda. Second, the integration of poor people in an international value chain through BOP approaches tends to ignore the power relations inherent in the chain governance. These two factors could jeopardize the locally embedded process of inclusive business development that is intended to promote pro-poor growth.}, pages = {17--28}, title = {Social Business for Pro-Poor Growth}, volume = {43}, year = {2013} }