Bridging profitability and sustainability: essays on private sector innovation for sustainable development in low-income contexts

This dissertation examines how businesses can contribute to sustainable development in low-income contexts while remaining financially viable. It brings together four studies that each focus on a different part of this challenge. The first identifies why some affordable products and services for low-income communities survive while others fail, showing that success depends on understanding local needs, building trust, and forming strong partnerships. The second maps the field of humanitarian innovation and finds that progress is often limited by fragmented efforts and weak coordination among organisations. The third study investigates financial guarantees for refugee-led enterprises in Kenya and Uganda, demonstrating how these tools reduce risk for financial institutions and make lending to refugees commercially attractive. The final study analyses how different corporate sustainability practices relate to financial performance. Together, the findings show that “doing well by doing good” is possible, but only when firms develop the right capabilities and operate in supportive policy and financial environments.