Digital Technology-based New Business Model for Inclusive Development

“不让任何一个人掉队”是最近达成一致的联合国2030年可持续发展目标（SDGs）的一个关键目标。由于穷人，特别是青年和妇女，往往被边缘化，被排除在市场参与之外，因为他们无法获得教育、资源和信息，赋予这些群体权力，并将其纳入主流市场和创造收入的活动，是实现可持续发展目标和建设包容性社会的重要必要条件。这一点很重要，因为发展中国家的劳动力市场相当不足，年轻人正在激增。新兴数字技术既可以成为劳动力市场的平衡因素，也可以成为破坏性因素，它们可以赋予妇女和青年权力。因此，数字技术成本的下降应该促进和支持新的交换机制，这将产生新的价值创造模式（Amit和Zott， 2012），并将引导商业组织走向基于网络的系统（Dafe和Lewin, 1993； Dunbar和Starbuck， 2006）。许多新的基于数字技术的商业模式已经被开发出来。这些发展不仅为经济增长创造了新的动力，也使小企业主的能力得到提升。这种能力的提高将反过来提高穷人的福利（Sen, 1999）。然而，为了充分发挥这一潜力，还有许多空白需要填补。(1)研究大多集中在评价技术对发展的影响。人们对将技术的好处转化为就业、收入和穷人增长的驱动力所需的商业模式知之甚少（Seelos & maair, 2007）。(2)现有的研究大多集中在网上销售产品或服务的电子交易业务，通常需要大量的初始资金投入来开展业务。什么样的新商业模式可以帮助穷人从数字技术中受益？这是包容性发展尚未充分探索的领域。(3)如何利用数字化创新的商业模式来支持新业务的增长和就业，已有一些研究。如何设计一种商业模式，使没有初始资本的穷人能够从技术进步中受益，目前尚不清楚。要确保这种以数字技术为基础的新商业模式取得成功，需要哪些基本的制度、监管和能力条件？在这一过程中，国家和跨国企业（MNEs）可以发挥什么作用？这些问题将填补这一重大空白，并提供重要的政策和管理影响。利用技术、发展研究和负责任商业研究的跨学科研究，该项目旨在通过包容性数字模型（IDMODEL）填补文献空白，该模型将特别包括贫困青年和妇女。具体而言，它将：1)开发、测试并最终确定一种基于数字技术的新商业模式，使穷人能够根据自己的技能和经验创业，同时需要最少的资本投资。2)评估这种基于直销的商业模式对就业、收入创造和能力建设的影响。3)分析确保其成功和扩大规模所需的基本监管和能力条件，以及在其他发展中国家复制的可能性。4)研究国家、跨国公司和民间社会如何合作实现包容性发展。该项目将得到来自牛津大学和伯明翰大学的一个多学科研究小组以及来自孟加拉国和中国的私营和公共部门的合作者的支持。它将填补目前在技术、商业模式和包容性发展及其影响方面的空白，并为制定相关的发展政策提供新的数据集和强有力的经验证据，从而为文献做出贡献。

"Leave no one behind" has been a key objective of the recently agreed UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the poor, in particular the youth and women, are often being marginalised and excluded from market participation due to unequal access to education, resources and information, empowering and including these segments into the main stream market and income creation activities turns out to be an important imperative to achieve SDGs and build an inclusive society. This is important as developing countries are witnessing an upsurge of young people in rather inadequate labour market. While emerging digital technologies can become both an equaliser and a disruptive factor in labour markets, they can empower both women and youth. The decreasing cost of digital technology should thus foster and support new exchange mechanisms that will generate new models of value creation (Amit and Zott, 2012) and will lead business organisations towards network based systems (Dafe & Lewin, 1993; Dunbar & Starbuck, 2006). Many new digital technology-based business models have already been developed. These developments not only create new drivers for economic growth, but also lead to upgrading of capabilities of small business owners. Such increased capabilities will in turn enhance the welfare of the poor (Sen, 1999). However, there are a number of gaps to fill in order for this potential to fully materialise. (1) Most of the research focuses on the evaluation of the impact of technology on development. Little is known about the business models that are needed to transform the benefits of technology into jobs, income and a driver for growth for the poor (Seelos & Mair, 2007). (2) The existing studies mostly focus on e-trading businesses that sell products or services online, and normally require considerable initial capital investment to start the business. What type of new business model can help the poor to benefit from digital technology? This is an under-explored area for inclusive development. (3) Some research is available on how to use business models for digital innovations to support growth of new businesses and employment. How is it possible to design a business model to empower the poor who have no initial capital to benefit from technological progress is missing. What underlying institutional, regulatory and capability conditions are needed to ensure the success of such digital technology-based new business model? What role can the state and Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) play in this process? These questions will fill the significant gap and provide important policy and managerial implications.Drawing on inter-disciplinary research from technology, development studies and responsible business studies, this project aims to fill in the gap in the literature with an Inclusive Digital Model (IDMODEL) that will particularly include deprived youth and women. In particular, it will:1) Develop, test and finalise a digital technology-based new business model which enables poor people to start a business based on their skills and experiences, while requiring minimum capital investment. 2) Evaluate the impact of this DT-based business model on jobs, income creation and capabilities building. 3) Analyse the underlying regulatory and capability conditions that are needed to ensure its success and scale up, and the possibility to replicate in other developing countries.4) Examine how the state, MNEs and civil society can collaborate for inclusive development.The project will be supported by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the universities of Oxford and Birmingham, and collaborators in Bangladesh and China from both the private and public sectors. It will contribute to the literature by filling current gaps on technology, business model and inclusive development and its impact as well as producing novel datasets and robust empirical evidence to elaborate relevant policies for development.