Representing Interventions from the Base of the Pyramid

Abstract

The base of the world economic pyramid, generally called the base of the pyramid (BoP), consists of four billion people with average per day income of four dollars. While some authors suggest a systems approach to design and develop products and services (i.e. interventions) for BoP markets, a little work has been carried out in this area. Furthermore, a framework to represent interventions in the BoP (i.e. socio-technical systems) and the resulting changes of state is not available. The reviewed studies on technical systems include models that represent inputs and the resulting changes of state in such systems; however, these studies have not been used to represent interventions in socio-technical systems. By modifying a causality model of technical systems, this study develops a framework called the IASTS model to represent interventions in a socio-technical system. It then explains the IASTS model by analyzing two case studies drawn from the BoP.