Social Entrepreneurship in India
Gone are the days when shopping meant perspiring under the scorching sun, exploring choking streets to look for the most reasonably priced shop or briskly crossing noisy gullies to reach that one trusted saree house, normally formatted dash dash and sons. The mall and brand culture has gripped the country well and the positive price delta is justified by “the experience".
So what comes to your mind when we talk about this phrase-asset bubble, the obvious keywords that figure in your answer largely happen to be US, 2008,recession ,depression-single,double, triple dip(to be ascertained)! I tried to apply my mental scaffold about a bubble to something incredibly small as compared to the context we just mentioned and world leaders are trying to mention in all fanciful language, arranging and rearranging economic anagrams for a couple of years now..my focus is a pair of hot pants (i.e what you get after masterji reduces the five star boy’s patloon by three bilaan).
Wandering in an apparel store I found that the price tag on hot pants read some hundreds more than the one on a pair of pants. I understand the line of argument, the one that revolves around subjective theory of value, quenching the desire of wearing the stuff in vogue but as I try to see this in Indian context where much of basic needs remain unmet , I see the requirement for more meaningful demand-supply chains . The entrepreneur invests in marketing strategies to sell his product at a price greater than its intrinsic value and thus the perceived value inflates. This is a normal phenomena and rules current markets mostly in domains where economies of scale prevail. The dynamics, though seem to change when we concentrate on confined business operations… on much smaller scale.
The financial pundits have professed that our economy needs to build on domestic demand as the world economic structures and processes are becoming increasingly fragile. This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs , more so for start ups at small scale to focus inwards and resolve the mesh of domestic needs. We are a country of some 1.2 billion, impoverished states, malnourished kids, largest slums etc.Considering the myriad socio-economic-ecological problems we are faced with , there is a lot of potential for innovation and successful commercial ventures that run on social lines, what we know as social entrepreneurship.
In a localized field, it is easier for a small business unit to address the already present needs which remain concealed due to non recognition by stakeholders than to create subjective demand for a product that rests on nothing but an extrinsically driven desire which needs to be kept afloat all the time to sustain the commercial venture. Taking an example, lot of e- waste generated in homes and this usually finds place in normal garbage bins. Now ,after the new e-waste rules floated by the government ,The manufacturer has to take the responsibility for collection of such e-waste but this becomes a problem due to inaccessibility ,some thought tinkering about a collection line flanked by manufacturers and households may give birth to an innovative social business. Social entrepreneurship thus may cut down on some perpetual variable cost (advt etc)which other businesses would normally involve. What I precisely want to say is that social entrepreneurship may not always be seen clubbed with charity or forgoing some profit to benefit the society although no doubt such ventures create positive externalities per se. This may be taken as another domain of business where prudent business skills can bring a drastic cut down in operating costs of the unit.
And on a personal note, something more substantial than altering the size of apparels and creating magnificent bubbles around them would always be more significant!!!
So what comes to your mind when we talk about this phrase-asset bubble, the obvious keywords that figure in your answer largely happen to be US, 2008,recession ,depression-single,double, triple dip(to be ascertained)! I tried to apply my mental scaffold about a bubble to something incredibly small as compared to the context we just mentioned and world leaders are trying to mention in all fanciful language, arranging and rearranging economic anagrams for a couple of years now..my focus is a pair of hot pants (i.e what you get after masterji reduces the five star boy’s patloon by three bilaan).
Wandering in an apparel store I found that the price tag on hot pants read some hundreds more than the one on a pair of pants. I understand the line of argument, the one that revolves around subjective theory of value, quenching the desire of wearing the stuff in vogue but as I try to see this in Indian context where much of basic needs remain unmet , I see the requirement for more meaningful demand-supply chains . The entrepreneur invests in marketing strategies to sell his product at a price greater than its intrinsic value and thus the perceived value inflates. This is a normal phenomena and rules current markets mostly in domains where economies of scale prevail. The dynamics, though seem to change when we concentrate on confined business operations… on much smaller scale.
The financial pundits have professed that our economy needs to build on domestic demand as the world economic structures and processes are becoming increasingly fragile. This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs , more so for start ups at small scale to focus inwards and resolve the mesh of domestic needs. We are a country of some 1.2 billion, impoverished states, malnourished kids, largest slums etc.Considering the myriad socio-economic-ecological problems we are faced with , there is a lot of potential for innovation and successful commercial ventures that run on social lines, what we know as social entrepreneurship.
In a localized field, it is easier for a small business unit to address the already present needs which remain concealed due to non recognition by stakeholders than to create subjective demand for a product that rests on nothing but an extrinsically driven desire which needs to be kept afloat all the time to sustain the commercial venture. Taking an example, lot of e- waste generated in homes and this usually finds place in normal garbage bins. Now ,after the new e-waste rules floated by the government ,The manufacturer has to take the responsibility for collection of such e-waste but this becomes a problem due to inaccessibility ,some thought tinkering about a collection line flanked by manufacturers and households may give birth to an innovative social business. Social entrepreneurship thus may cut down on some perpetual variable cost (advt etc)which other businesses would normally involve. What I precisely want to say is that social entrepreneurship may not always be seen clubbed with charity or forgoing some profit to benefit the society although no doubt such ventures create positive externalities per se. This may be taken as another domain of business where prudent business skills can bring a drastic cut down in operating costs of the unit.
And on a personal note, something more substantial than altering the size of apparels and creating magnificent bubbles around them would always be more significant!!!
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