The growth in developing markets has created a need for businesses to re-look their strategies and become players in the emerging economies. With the advancement of growth in the developing countries, new opportunities are created with innovative solutions coming from developing countries and being sold to developed countries. Besides the projected growth and opportunities in the developing countries, the majority of people living in poverty are found in these countries. They are also faced with challenges such as lack of infrastructure and lack of property rights. Firms that want to successfully serve these markets will need to develop innovative business models that will create value for the shareholders, communities and other stakeholders.The purpose of this study is to explore business models developed for the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) in different industries and to understand what makes them successful despite facing the institutional voids experienced in developing countries with the intention to provide a high-level generic business model template that can be used for firms that are targeting the BOP markets. The objective of this report, hence, was to explore the differences in business models developed by firms serving the BOP market; identify the challenges of doing business in developing countries and explore how those challenges are met; and identify the critical success factors in serving the BOP markets. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / pagibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

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Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / One of the population structures associated with demographic dividend is “demographic transition”, which is a shift from high fertility and mortality to low fertility and mortality. It is understood that low dependency ratio (shows that there are relatively more adults of working age who can support the young and the old of the populace) is one major factor in achieving a successful demographic dividend (DD) (Esther, 2013). DD refers to the fast-economic growth that is achieved by a country when there are dependency ratios. This definition means that the proportion of people of working age group (15-64) is higher, compared to those of ages lower than 15 and above 64 years (Statistics SA, 2017). / 2022

The need to improve early mathematics education in the United States is very clear, given the importance of early mathematics learning and the consistently poor math performance of children from low-SES backgrounds. It is crucial to engage these disadvantaged children in meaningful math learning as early as possible. With the continuous infiltration of technology into our lives, the powerful affordances of tablet computers may enable the development of powerful math applications. Given the limited evidence of using well-designed math applications to enhance young children’s math learning, the primary goal of this dissertation was to examine the efficacy of a research-based math software application on low-income preschoolers’ number sense performance. Twenty-eight 4- to 5-year-old intervention participants completed MathemAntics (MA) training 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week for 4 weeks. The other 28 control participants stayed in their classroom and received general class instruction. All participants were given a pretest and a posttest to evaluate their number sense performance. Results indicated that the intervention group outperformed the control group on number sense assessment, and the intervention participants’ mean standardized Addition & Subtraction gain was the highest among the seven subtests, with the mean Standardized Compare Quantities gain being the lowest. Results also indicated that prior knowledge of identifying numerals predicted the overall post-assessment performance and the lack of knowledge on Addition & Subtraction predicted the standardized overall gain. The MA training analyses showed that the participants improved adequately on most of the MA activities during intervention. The use of MA tools was also discussed. The results provided direct evidence for demonstrating the efficacy of MA and added valuable information to the field of math software design. The results of this study also suggested that future studies can examine how the MA activities can be effectively integrated into the math curriculum and whether the MA activities are appropriate for home numeracy development.