LSE Innovation Co-Creation Lab

ICCLab’s Abdelnour on Economic Ideals: Gandhian and Neoliberal Logics in India

ICCLab — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:59:52 +0000

ICCLab’s Samer Abdelnour and his collaborators, Babita Bhatt and Israr Qureshi, have published a highly topical article dealing with enterprise logics in the UN Research Institute for Social Development’s Viewpoints series.

Social and solidarity economies differ greatly in terms of their underlying logics – the values, beliefs, rules and material practices by which people and communities reproduce their social realities. The significance of social economy logics should not be underestimated: while economic activities may appear similar in form, differences in the underlying logics can lead to stark differences in enterprise models and socioeconomic outcomes. In the case of India, we find a diversity of enterprise logics: some are underpinned by longstanding political and sociocultural hierarchies while others follow Western-centric norms and values. In this think piece we consider two broad types of enterprise model: Gandhian (sarvodaya) and Western (neoliberal). These models have influenced the nature of much economic activity occurring in India today. As such, they provide a revealing starting point for investigating variations in social and solidarity economic activity and outcomes.

Read the complete article on the UNRISD site.

Ping Fu at the LSE: From Mao’s Child Soldier to 3D printing revolutionary

ICCLab — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:41:17 +0000

ICCLab’s Vili Lehdonvirta is chairing a public lecture tonight by Ping Fu, an entrepreneur with an amazing story to tell – from the heartbreaking story of her youth in China in the grip of the Cultural Revolution, to her exile and eventual emergence as one of the innovators leading today’s 3D printing revolution.

Digital Reality – Life in Two Worlds: The Physical World We Inhabit and the Digital Universe We Create

Speaker: Ping Fu, President and CEO, Geomagic
Time: 21 January 2013 6.30-8.00pm
Venue: LSE Old Building, Old Theatre

Full details

ICCLab’s Abdelnour on the dangers of simplification in Stanford Social Innovation Review

ICCLab — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:58:35 +0000

Newly produced mud stove in El Fashir, North Darfur. (Photo by Samer Abdelnour)

How did efficient cookstoves end up being sold as tools that are supposed to solve rape? As private activism plays an increasingly visible part in humanitarian and development interventions, ICCLab member Samer Abdelnour cautions against portraying far-away crises as “manageable problems” that can be solved through simple technical solutions. Read his article If Stoves Could Kill in Stanford Social Innovation Review.

African Leadership Network opens application for African entrepreneurship awards

ICCLab — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:06:54 +0000

The African Leadership Network, together with impact fund Legatum, just opened applications for their entrepreneurship awards. More information here: http://www.africaawards.com/

Chris Busch honored with JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons award

ICCLab — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:28:46 +0000

Chris Busch, middle, in the award ceremony at the London Chamber of Commerce

In a ceremony at the London Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday, ICCLab Associate Director Chris Busch was honored with the Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons award. The award came as recognition for his work with the LSE Innovation and Co-Creation Lab and Sandbox. According to JCI London, Chris represents “Academia in action: driving forward young entrepreneurs to build their self-confidence, widen their impact and ignite innovation.“ Past TOYP winners include John. F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Jackie Chan and Amar Latif.

To get involved with ICCLab as a donor or partner, please contact Chris at C.Busch1@lse.ac.uk.

Original press release: JCI London recognising inspiring young active people

Can poverty be reduced through successful business model innovation? ICCLab’s Busch in LSE Connect

ICCLab — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:13:15 +0000

The LSE Connect magazine has published an article written by ICCLab Associate Director Chris Busch. The article outlines the lab’s vision and activities, and calls on LSE alumni to join our quest! Read the article online here.

Business Model Innovation in the Digital Entertainment Sector: Implications for Policy

ICCLab — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:04:50 +0000

The digital entertainment sector is often at the forefront of innovation in the digital economy, adopting new business models before they become common throughout the economy. When we think about policies to enable and support ICT-lead innovation and growth, it thus makes sense to pay attention to the latest developments in the digital games and entertainment industries. ICCLab Associate Director Vili Lehdonvirta was invited to lecture about this topic at the World Bank/infoDev Training Program on Innovation Policy for ICT. Please find the slides below.

Indian social enterprises get in-depth coaching from ICCLab Director Harry Barkema at Sankalp Summit

ICCLab — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:44:06 +0000

Professor Harry Barkema is delivering a workshop for eight Indian social businesses from across the country, who are today gathered in Mumbai for the kickoff of this year’s Annual Sankalp Summit. The enterprises come from a variety of sectors, representing education, health, financial services, agriculture, and clean energy. They are among a group of 30 social businesses selected as Sankalp Award Finalists, each hoping to win an award in their sector tomorrow at Day 2 of the Sankalp Forum. The following enterprises are participating in the workshop:

Classle Knowledge Solutions, Chennai
Nationwide Docs, Bangalore
Eko India Financial Services, Delhi
Vinfinet Technologies, Bangalore
Kisan Raja, Bangalore
Bhushan Agro, rural Madhya Pradesh
Ampere Vehicles, Coimbatore
Eco Reco, Mumbai
NextGen, Bangalore

The workshop, titled LSE Innovation Workshop, is part of ICCLab’s integrated research -> teaching -> fieldwork methodology and is the culmination of months of research into the intersection of organizational theory and anthropological perspectives on development. Barkema, with ICCLab’s Juli Huang, held in-depth interviews with the enterprises to build a targeted workshop agenda reflecting the research they had conducted and the real constraints facing these enterprises. At the end of the day, the eight enterprises will walk away with ideas and implementation plans for extending their services to lower-income groups, scaling up their impact. The input from the enterprises will also provide Barkema and Huang with preliminary data to take their research to the next stages.

The annual Sankalp Summit is one of Asia’s largest collaborative platforms to bring together social enterprises, impact investors, policy makers, academicians, and other market makers. Initiated in 2009 with the vision of catalyzing impact investments into social enterprises globally, the forum today has evolved into a community of over 350 social enterprises, over 300 investors and 300 sector stakeholders.

ICCLab’s Lehdonvirta on mobile innovation in the World Bank Private Sector Development blog

ICCLab — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:10:43 +0000

ICCLab’s Lehdonvirta has published another guest article in the World Bank’s Private Sector Development blog. Read the full article here.

Almost two months ago, infoDev launched an online challenge to aid digital job creation in developing countries. The challenge, called m2Work (after mobile microwork), asks participants to identify real-world problems that could be addressed by millions of underprivileged people equipped with Internet-connected mobile phones. The challenge is still ongoing: most of the $40,000 prize money remains on the table, and anyone can submit ideas until April 2. Even so, a lot has already happened. Over 600 ideas have been submitted, and the jury has awarded four initial spot prizes.

I am in the exciting position of being one of m2Work’s jury members. In this post, I briefly analyse the submissions and winners that we have so far, offering a few observations that should interest anyone planning to participate in the challenge, as well as anyone in the private sector development community eager to learn how this type of intervention can play out. I hasten to add that this is by no means a final analysis. The project is slated to continue, turning ideas into impact, even after the challenge itself ends.

First Sankalp 2012 Innovation Workshop participant named: Classle

ICCLab — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:58:54 +0000

The first Sankalp 2012 Innovation Workshop participant has been named. The workshop is part of ICCLab’s partnership with Intellecap to help social enterprises grow. The first nominee is Classle, a Social Enterprise committed to bring quality, access and outcome in education and learning. Leveraging technology for scale and scope, Classle’s social learning network is designed for “Rest of Pyramid”, uses inclusive systemic approach and has a secondary revenue model.

Classle initiated work in 2010 with engineering education as its target, since it found large number of youth putting themselves through education only to find that they were not employable because of poor quality of instruction and lack of relevance in their learning. This was more acute in rural areas which have added disadvantages.

Classle has grown to about 170 colleges as partners and more than 150,000 students in its network that’s doubling every 4 months. It brings depth to its network by finding employment for students and is increasing scope by expanding to other types of college education as well as vocational training, entrepreneurship education and school education.