Embracing Solutions-Driven Innovation to Address Institutional Voids: The Case of Uber and the Middle of the Pyramid

Abstract

This article explores solutions-driven innovation within an emerging market context, specifically in Africa, and how it can be utilized as a strategy by multinational enterprises to address institutional voids in these markets. Through a qualitative case study of Uber and their expansion into Africa, it demonstrates how solutions-driven innovation can create markets and mitigate distance and institutional voids in emerging market contexts. Uber created markets in Africa by developing a solution to consumers’ unmet needs. Such solutions-driven innovation can create opportunities not only at the bottom but also in the middle of the economic pyramid. But to be successful in African markets requires being mindful of how institutional voids necessitate innovative solutions and potentially different value propositions.