It’s hard not to appreciate the success of a ‘mom and pop’ business. The romanticized notion of self-reliance and success. An idealized world where it’s possible for everyone – even the metaphorical ‘little guy’ – to transform their dreams into a vibrant, growing business that supports the local community and provides a good living for…
Historically speaking, social exclusion was first linked with the concept of poverty as poverty was believed to be the cause of a group’s inability to fully integrate and function within society. Poverty was initially measured in absolutes, meaning that there was a specific monetary threshold below which an individual or group was considered to be…
There have been various approaches to development for poverty reduction since efforts have been made to promote and encourage development in non-Westernized nations. These approaches have been varied in nature, ranging from the initial Basic Income Approach in 1901 (see Rowntree) to the Empowerment Approach in 1983 (see Chambers) to the Systems Development and Integrated…
First introduced in 1985 by Michael Porter, the value chain concept is understood as the process by which value is added to raw materials via various production processes in order to generate a final product that can be sold for a higher price. This article reviews what value chains are how how they optimize value….
Have you ever wondered why Wall Street is known for finance or why the California wine industry has been so successful in integrating itself into the global market? In a word: clusters. Clusters are concentrations of complementary organizations, institutions and companies that are components of a given field in a specific geographic location. These conglomerations…
The world we live in is quite complicated. Being alone in this crazy, mixed-up reality can make this truth quite scary. However, even in the big, bad take-no-prisoners universe of globalized economics, there are tools that can be used to help improve one’s chances of successful navigation through these choppy waters. One of the most…