Disruptive Innovation at the Base-of-the-Pyramid: Negotiating the Missing Links

The disruptive innovation framework has become a topical issue in recent years. Despite its popularity, as well the perceived strategic advantages it bestows on entrant firms, little is known about capability of new-technology-based firms (NTBFs) South African context. This article explores contextual factors that influence Africa’s base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) environment and how, given specifics this operating environment, entrepreneurs strategize for capability. Following development conceptual framework, we used grounded theory approach to conduct in-depth interviews with purposefully selected stakeholders NTBF incubation sector. Our findings show Africa catalytic socio-economic dynamics encourage innovations. However, despite having fairly robust institutions entrepreneurial ecosystem, these fall short enabling NTBFs, owing poor-quality linkages between among within ecosystem. On strength findings, synthesised BoP environments highlights Specifically, demonstrate how quality ecosystem influences outcomes innovators.