5. Discussion, conclusions and future research
We conclude by first discussing our findings in relation to the two questions that motivated the research. Subsequently we consider the implications of our findings for MNE engagement with BOP 5.1. Social ‘missions’ and social value creation in BOP business models In this paper we set out to investigate the following two questions: in the context of BOP (1) what factors influence whether social value creation is an OBJECTIVE of business formation? and (2) how is social value creation related to business model formulation and dynamics? With respect to the first question our findings highlight two points. The first point is that a conscious and deliberate social ‘mission’ does not appear to be a necessary precondition for BOP enterprises to generate social value as a main outcome. Thus, in three of our cases there was no explicit or deliberate sense of mission underpinning the business models and yet social value creation was unambiguously an important or central outcome of the businesses. Therefore dismissing the social value creation impact of business enterprises in the absence of conscious social mission formulation as ‘‘secondary gains’’ does not seem valid in a BOP context. Second and more importantly, perhaps, our findings also suggest that when a social mission does underpin the BOP business models, such mission is intimately linked with a ‘‘struggle’’ to overcome locally experienced constraints. Thus the mission cannot be seen as abstracted from the context. Specifically, in our case studies, a ‘social mission’ appeared as a salient feature, when the enterprise’s raison d’e´tre was to overcome a deeply impacting local constraint: we consider these as ‘‘trigger constraints’’. While London et al. (2010) only focus on constraints after a business has already been created, our results suggest the existence of constraints in response to which businesses are created.
