MicroFranchising: Creating Wealth at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Poverty remains one of the most intractable problems in the developing world. Microfranchising offers great promise in alleviating poverty by aiding in the foundation of locally owned businesses. Microfranchising is defined as small businesses whose start-up costs are minimal and whose concepts and operations are easily replicated. It involves the systematizing of microenterprises to create and replicate turnkey businesses for the poor. With the awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, attention has increased on this remarkable concept.This unique book provides an overview of the need to alleviate poverty and what methods have been used in the past to do so (e.g. microcredit). It then introduces the concept of the microfranchise and discusses how this business model can be used in poverty alleviation. Different models of microfranchising are reviewed and specific case studies highlighted to show how it has worked in different parts of the world. The book concludes with a discussion of the advantages as well as the potential problems and pitfalls that accompany microfranchising. This book is a must read for business scholars and economists, practitioners and lenders, members of NGOs dedicated to poverty alleviation and anyone else who is interested in learning about an innovative, business focused tool to alleviate poverty.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword 1. Why Microfranchising is Needed Now: Introduction and Book Overview Jason S. Fairbourne PART I: MICROFRANCHISING THEORY 2. Microfranchising: The Next Step on the Development Ladder Stephen W. Gibson 3. The Informal Economy and Microfranchising Michael Henriques and Matthias Herr 4. Current International Development Tools to Combat Poverty Warner Woodworth 5. Opportunities for Partnership: How Microfinance and Microfranchising Complement Each Other John Hatch 6. Microfranchising and the Base of the Pyramid Molly Hoyt and Eliot Jamison PART II: MICROFRANCHISING IN PRACTICE 7. Microfranchise Business Models Kirk Magleby 8. Honey Care Africa Farouk Jiwa 9. Franchising Health Care for Kenya: The HealthStore Foundation Model Michelle Fertig and Herc Tzaras 10. Vodacom Community Services: Rural Telephone Access for South Africa Lisa Jones Christensen, Jennifer (Reck) Van Kirk and Brad Wood 11. Scojo Foundation Jordan Kassalow, Graham Macmillan and Neil Blumenthal 12. Microfranchise Funding Naoko Felder-Kuzu PART III: CONCLUSION 13. The Future of Microfranchising: Opportunities and Challenges W. Gibb Dyer, Jr. Index

About the Author :
Edited by Jason Fairbourne, Director, MicroFranchise Development Initiative, Center for Economic Self-Reliance, Brigham Young University, Stephen W. Gibson, The Academy for Creating Enterprise, US and W. Gibb Dyer, O. Leslie Stone Professor of Entrepreneurship, Marriott School, Brigham Young University, US

Review :
'Microfranchising offers a thorough-going and impartial analysis of microfranchising, covering both practice and theory. . . The tome's well documented chapters provide an objective overview of the various aspects of microfranchising and outline its main characteristics. . . This book should be read by all those involved in, or concerned by, the fight against poverty who are looking for a complete overview of microfranchising. The various actors of the entrepreneurial world will also find much in the volume of interest to them. . . Academics will find well documented sources, complete with operational examples, which will help them to present "action" projects to their students. Microfranchising and, more generally, micro-entrepreneurship, represent a vast field of research that will be of great interest to scholars working in the field of entrepreneurship. Fairbourne, Gibson and Dyer's book not only offers a valuable introduction to "micro-entrepreneurship", but demonstrates the human side of entrepreneurship as a whole.' 'Microfranchising has clues and cautions to help create wealth and lift humanity from poverty by energizing communities, families and individuals to profit-making productivity in cooperation with guidance, education, and other resources from established businesses, financial institutions and philanthropists. Anyone interested in shrinking the bottom of the world's income and wealth pyramid to create real widespread sustainability and all the consequent social and health benefits should read this book.' 'What do buying honey, renting mobile phones and fitting prescription glasses have in common? Answer: they are all activities that have expanded in low-income countries through microfranchising. This book brings together the ideas of researchers and social entrepreneurs at the heart of a movement to turn microfranchising into a mechanism for sustainable poverty reduction on a scale to match microfinance. A seductive mix of advocacy and realism, analysis and case-study provides readers with the ingredients to make up their own mind about the potential of microfranchising as a development tool.'