DESIGN FOR EMERGING BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID MARKETS: A PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM (PSS) BASED APPROACH

摘要

Multi billion people exist at the bottom of the global economic pyramid (BOP). Increased consumer demand and enormous volume has helped turn these BOP into emerging markets with substantial profit potential. Current approaches for designing product and service solutions for BOP markets are ad-hoc in nature. Product Service Systems (PSS), products intertwined with services, can be highly adaptable to these emerging markets and provide an unique framework for designing solutions in the emerging BOP markets. This paper systematically approaches the problem of designing customized PSSs for emerging markets. The approach is based on results of an empirical study of multiple cases of existing successful products and services designed for BOP markets. As part of the study various cases are analyzed and high level principles for designing PSSs are derived from the empirical data. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through the conceptual design of a healthcare PSS for emerging markets.