Community-based enterprises (CBEs) offer a pathway for communities at the base of the pyramid (BoP) to combat poverty and drive development by addressing local social issues. However, the creation of CBEs in resource-scarce settings remains underexplored. With the support of an action research intervention aimed at the sustainability of medicinal plants through empowering indigenous communities, we examined the processes and mechanisms that enable the creation of CBEs in resource-constrained settings. Using a qualitative case study method, we identified seven mechanisms—informalizing spaces, survival instincts, solidarity, upskilling, resourcefulness, reciprocity, and collective leadership—that enabled the successful creation of CBEs. Our study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the potential of CBEs as sharing economy organizations to address resource constraints and promote inclusivity among marginalized populations in BoP environments. The results emphasize the necessity for policymakers and CBEs to design platform structures grounded in sharing economy principles to integrate scattered production resources and enhance economic resilience.
AcquierA.DaudigeosT.PinkseJ. (2017). Promises and paradoxes of the sharing economy: An organizing framework. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 125, 1–10.
2.
BacqS.HertelC.LumpkinG. T. (2022). Communities at the nexus of entrepreneurship and societal impact: A cross-disciplinary literature review. Journal of Business Venturing, 37(5), 106231.
3.
BaileyN. (2012). The role, organisation and contribution of community enterprise to urban regeneration policy in the UK. Progress in Planning, 77(1), 1–35.
4.
BarraketJ.EversoleR.LukeB.BarthS. (2019). Resourcefulness of locally-oriented social enterprises: Implications for rural community development. Journal of Rural Studies, 70, 188–197.
5.
BelkR. (2014). You are what you can access: Sharing and collaborative consumption online. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1595–1600.
6.
BurattiN.AlbaneseM.SilligC. (2022). Interpreting community enterprises’ ability to survive in depleted contexts through the Humane Entrepreneurship lens: Evidence from Italian rural areas. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 29(1), 74–92.
7.
BurattiN.SilligC.AlbaneseM. (2022). Community enterprise, community entrepreneurship and local development: A literature review on three decades of empirical studies and theorizations. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 34(5–6), 376–401.
8.
CharmazK. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
9.
ContractorN. S.DeChurchL. A.CarsonJ.CarterD. R.KeeganB. (2012). The topology of collective leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(6), 994–1011.
10.
CozzensS.SutzJ. (2014). Innovation in informal settings: Reflections and proposals for a research agenda. Innovation and Development, 4(1), 5–31.
11.
CucchiC.LubberinkR.DentoniD.GartnerW. B. (2022). “That’s Witchcraft”: Community entrepreneuring as a process of navigating intra-community tensions through spiritual practices. Organization Studies, 43(2), 179–201.
12.
DalkinS. M.GreenhalghJ.JonesD.CunninghamB.LhussierM. (2015). What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation. Implementation Science, 10(1), 49.
13.
De SouzaD. E. (2013). Elaborating the context-mechanism-outcome configuration (CMOc) in realist evaluation: A critical realist perspective. Evaluation, 19(2), 141–154.
14.
De WegerE.Van VoorenN. J. E.WongG.DalkinS.MarchalB.DrewesH. W.BaanC. A. (2020). What’s in a realist configuration? Deciding which causal configurations to use, how, and why. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1609406920938577.
15.
DenyerD.TranfieldD.Van AkenJ. E. (2008). Developing design propositions through research synthesis. Organization Studies, 29(3), 393–413.
16.
DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (2008). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (3rd ed., pp. 1–43). Sage Publications.
17.
FinlayL. (2002). “Outing” the researcher: The provenance, process, and practice of reflexivity. Qualitative Health Research, 12(4), 531–545.
18.
FrémeauxS.SferrazzoR.GrevinA. (2025). Generalized reciprocity and interfirm cooperation: A study of entrepreneurial development in Argentina. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–17. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06016-7
19.
GranotE.BrashearT. G.Cesar MottaP. (2012). A structural guide to in-depth interviewing in business and industrial marketing research. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 27(7), 547–553.
20.
HamariJ.SjöklintM.UkkonenA. (2016). The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(9), 2047–2059.
21.
HandyF.CnaanR. A.BhatG.MeijsL. C. P. M. (2011). Jasmine growers of coastal Karnataka: Grassroots sustainable community-based enterprise in India. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 23(5–6), 405–417.
22.
HaughH. (2007). Community–led social venture creation. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 31(2), 161–182.
23.
HertelC.BacqS.BelzF.-M. (2019). It takes a village to sustain a village: A social identity perspective on successful community-based enterprise creation. Academy of Management Discoveries, 5(4), 438–464.
24.
HertelC.BinderJ.FauchartE. (2021). Getting more from many—A framework of community resourcefulness in new venture creation. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(3), 106094.
25.
HoddyE. T. (2019). Critical realism in empirical research: Employing techniques from grounded theory methodology. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(1), 111–124.
26.
HotaP. K.MitraS.QureshiI. (2019). Adopting bricolage to overcome resource constraints: The case of social enterprises in Rural India. Management and Organization Review, 15(02), 371–402.
27.
HynesB. (2009). Growing the social enterprise—Issues and challenges. Social Enterprise Journal, 5(2), 114–125.
28.
JacksonB.NicollM.RoyM. J. (2018). The distinctive challenges and opportunities for creating leadership within social enterprises. Social Enterprise Journal, 14(1), 71–91.
29.
Jarl BorchO.FørdeA.RønningL.Kluken VestrumI.Agnete AlsosG. (2008). Resource configuration and creative practices of community entrepreneurs. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 2(2), 100–123.
30.
KempsterS.ParryK. W. (2011). Grounded theory and leadership research: A critical realist perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(1), 106–120.
31.
KistruckG. M.BeamishP. W.QureshiI.SutterC. J. (2013). Social intermediation in base-of-the-pyramid markets. Journal of Management Studies, 50(1), 31–66.
32.
KleinhansR.BaileyN.LindberghJ. (2019). How community-based social enterprises struggle with representation and accountability. Social Enterprise Journal, 16(1), 60–81.
33.
KleinhansR.Van MeerkerkI.WarsenR.ClareS. (2023). Understanding the durability of community enterprises in England. Results of a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Public Management Review, 25(5), 926–949.
34.
LondonT.AnupindiR.ShethS. (2010). Creating mutual value: Lessons learned from ventures serving base of the pyramid producers. Journal of Business Research, 63(6), 582–594.
35.
ManzanoA. (2016). The craft of interviewing in realist evaluation. Evaluation, 22(3), 342–360.
36.
MeyerC. (2020). The commons: A model for understanding collective action and entrepreneurship in communities. Journal of Business Venturing, 35(5), 106034.
37.
MichaelisT. L.ScheafD. J.CarrJ. C.PollackJ. M. (2022). An agentic perspective of resourcefulness: Self-reliant and joint resourcefulness behaviors within the entrepreneurship process. Journal of Business Venturing, 37(1), 106083.
38.
MilesM. B.HubermanA. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
39.
MunozS.-A.SteinerA.FarmerJ. (2015). Processes of community-led social enterprise development: Learning from the rural context. Community Development Journal, 50(3), 478–493.
40.
PawsonR. (2013). The science of evaluation: A realist manifesto. SAGE Publications.
41.
PawsonR.TilleyN. (2001). Realistic Evaluation Bloodlines. American Journal of Evaluation, 22(3), 317–324.
PeredoA. M.ChrismanJ. J. (2006). Toward a theory of community-based enterprise. The Academy of Management Review, 31(2), 309–328.
44.
PrahaladC. K. (2005). The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Dorling Kindersley.
45.
PrahaladC. K.HartS. (2002). The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. Strategy + Business, 26, 54–67.
46.
QureshiI.BhattB.ShuklaD. M. (Eds.). (2021). Sharing economy at the base of the pyramid: Opportunities and challenges. Springer Nature.
47.
QureshiI.BhattB.SutterC.ShuklaD. M. (2023). Social entrepreneurship and intersectionality: Mitigating extreme exclusion. Journal of Business Venturing, 38(2), 106283.
48.
RitterM.SchanzH. (2019). The sharing economy: A comprehensive business model framework. Journal of Cleaner Production, 213, 320–331.
49.
RojonC.OkupeA.McDowallA. (2021). Utilization and development of systematic reviews in management research: What do we know and where do we go from here?International Journal of Management Reviews, 23(2), 191–223.
50.
SarkarS. (2018). Grassroots entrepreneurs and social change at the bottom of the pyramid: The role of bricolage. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 30(3–4), 421–449.
51.
SchwanholzJ.LeipoldS. (2020). Sharing for a circular economy? An analysis of digital sharing platforms’ principles and business models. Journal of Cleaner Production, 269, 122327.
52.
ShaneS.VenkataramanS. (2007). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. In CuervoÁ.RibeiroD.RoigS. (Eds.), Entrepreneurship (pp. 171–184). Springer.
53.
SirmonD. G.HittM. A.IrelandR. D.GilbertB. A. (2011). Resource orchestration to create competitive advantage: Breadth, depth, and life cycle effects. Journal of Management, 37(5), 1390–1412.
54.
SomervilleP.McElweeG. (2011). Situating community enterprise: A theoretical exploration. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 23(5–6), 317–330.
55.
TabasA. M.NättiS.KomulainenH. (2023). Orchestrating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem—Orchestrator roles and role-specific capabilities in the regional health technology ecosystem. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 38(1), 223–234.
56.
TuladharA.IatridisK.DimovD. (2024). Collaboration among circular start-ups and incumbents in the circular economy context. Business Strategy and the Environment, 33(4), 3317–3330.
57.
VestrumI.RasmussenE.CarterS. (2017). How nascent community enterprises build legitimacy in internal and external environments. Regional Studies, 51(11), 1721–1734.
58.
World Bank. (2024). Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024: Pathways out of the polycrisis. World Bank.
59.
YinR. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods (6th ed.). SAGE Publications.
60.
ZhangX.BalajiM. S.JiangY. (2024). Charting the future of digital servitization using CIMO framework. International Studies of Management & Organization, 1–28. 55(1), 112–139.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
