Hurdles and Opportunities

The focus of this thesis is scaling challenges for social businesses. In a first theoretical part, key concepts such as Social Business and the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) are introduced and complemented with important findings from BoP markets. Furthermore, frameworks to assess a firm’s development stage and identify scaling barriers are outlined. The roles and potential fields of action of different stakeholders are discussed before concluding this first part.

The empirical part of this thesis examines the case of Tinkisso-Antenna, a local chlorine producer in Guinea. The project history and business model are described, the social business’ position across the firm development stages assessed, scaling challenges identified, and selected opportunities outlined. Prior to the conclusion of this thesis, the author draws recommendations from the analysis. It turns out that the social business must secure capital injections to further develop firm and market, while the government, international organisations and other market participants must implement strategies that integrate the private sector, facilitate their approach, and eliminate competition resulting in inefficiencies.

 

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