Research Activities

Market Research and Innovation Processes

Market research in developing markets is confronted with a lack of information ranging from basic socioeconomic data to ‘sticky’ information such as preferences or decision making of the target group. At the same time, innovation processes must reinvent products, processes and business models within an entirely new context. Integration of the target group is key to dealing with both these challenges. Emergia is experimenting with easy to combine insights from marketing and innovation research with the practice of participatory and community led development processes. The objective is to develop effective and efficient market research and innovation processes that provide relevant information and ideas within a few weeks.

Business Model Development

Emerging markets, and in particular the urban slums and rural villas, are a difficult environment for businesses. Where legal institutions and enforcement mechanisms are weak, infrastructure is poor, information is scarce and doing business becomes expensive. Emergia researches the particular market conditions in these contexts and analyses how successful businesses are dealing with them. These insights are translated into practical tools to support the development of new business models. One of these tools is the ‘Matrix challenge’, a half day workshop that help businesses to identify constraints for their business models and come up with solutions.

Impact Assessment and Evaluation

Business solutions to development challenges impact on people, planet and profit. It is important to understand these impacts in order to ensure accountability towards ones stakeholders. It is also important to certify that the solution really does have the intended impact and to be able to review and improve the model with a view to the triple bottom line. We develop tools to map, measure and compare impacts in a holistic yet simple and efficient way. The publication ‘Toward triple impact’ includes a basic guidance framework for impact assessment.