Doing Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid. What are the potential explanatory factors for successful contribution by Multinational Companies that facilitate sustainable development at the BoP? The case of Nestlé

There are approximately 4 billion people in the world, who live on less than US $ 1 500 per year and therefore they are located at the so-called Base or Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). In recent years besides making profit, alleviating poverty has been the main topic, which many multinational companies (MNCs) focus on. In order to fight hunger and to provide sustainable development in the least developed countries (LDCs) they create market-based solutions for the world’s poorest consumers. The first scholar who thought of this idea and is seen as the constitutor of the approach which maintains that eradicating poverty could be achieved by doing business at the BoP, was Professor C.K. Prahalad (2002). His claim has met both, followers and critics, among many international authors. Why are there different opinions in the literature about how the MNCs implement the BoP-proposition and what are the reasons for the failure of some MNCs while selling at the poor marketplace? This will all be discussed in this paper in order to finally answer the key question: “What are the potential explanatory factors for successful contribution by Multinational Companies that facilitate sustainable development at the BoP?”.