Exploring MNCs supply chain challenges in the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) market

Abstract

The BoP market is one of the biggest emerging markets in the economy that worth potentials more than trillions of dollars. However, the biggest challenge is to tap the potentiality of the market and take advantage of the potentiality lies in the market. The multinational companies are struggling hard to restructure the business to develop suitable models to explore that market. However, due to the lack of relevant studies and research the potentially of the market still remains unfolded in many of the markets in the global economy. Therefore, the study has been conducted to explore the supply chain challenges in the bottom of the pyramid market. The study has been carried out applying the interpretivism philosophy as it fits mostly with the context of the research. The reason behind following this particular philosophy is to address the issue accurately by collecting data from the primary sources. Besides, the context of the issue is very dynamic and evolving in nature and that leads the researcher to select this particular philosophy to solve the issue at hand rather considering the reality is stable. Inductive research approach has been be adopted for carrying out this study. The dynamism in the BoP market in Bangladesh is the key reason for which this approach has been adopted. Conducting the study without properly assessing the current condition of the issue would fail to reflect the true scenario. Adoption of deducted research approach would have narrowed down the scopes of the study. The concept of BoP market research to address the supply chain challenges is very new in the context of the Bangladeshi market. Hence, the bigger picture is yet to be understood to recommend specific areas to be addressed. Therefore, the researcher should conduct an exploratory study to gather the necessary information to understand the problems or opportunities. The researcher has selected a sample of 45 employees from 15 organizations on which the survey has been carried out. For selecting the sample organizations, the researcher has used stratified sampling method under which the population dataset has been divided in different strata in terms of BoP market practices by the multinational companies in Bangladesh. The study has been conducted solely based on primary data collection. As there is lack of sufficient and reliable secondary data on the research topic, the researcher has conducted a survey on the employees of Supply Chain functions in different multinational companies to get the information. The survey questionnaire has included both close-ended and open-ended questions. As per data analysis, the researcher has used spreadsheet program MS Excel to convert the collected responses of the survey into numerical forms and present the findings of the research by using different graphs and charts. The study includes four broad objectives and throughout the study, the research has sought answers to satisfy the objectives of the study. The findings of the study shows following supply challenges namely weaknesses of the current information system, limitation of the supply chain information linkages, and information system linkage between the consumers and the retailers. Besides, the weak organizational infrastructure, cash poor consumers, investment constraints, products’ pricing and packaging, geographical and economic status of the country, and the awareness among the BoP market consumers have been shown with graph to understand the challenges in logistics and supply chain performance of the multinational companies in the bottom of the pyramid market in Bangladesh. From the findings, it is also found that currently the multinational companies are not directly tapping the BoP market. Rather they are making partnership with the local market distributors to sell the products. Moreover, they are now introducing field sales supervisors, and agents in the bottom of the pyramid market so that they can get information about the market directly and build a strong position in the market. To make the supply chain effective and eradicate challenges, the multinational companies are now designing innovative products, improving the efficiency and productivity, starting cost-saving production and distribution, and influencing policy makers and regulators.