Rajibul Hasan, PhD student at Kent Business School has been invited to present his research on 22-26 March at the University of Cape Town. The “Development through Enterprise” workshop is funded by the Newton Fund British Council Researcher Links programme in association with the South African National Research Foundation (NRF).
Mr Hasan will be presenting a paper on “An empirical comparison of key innovation adoption models in the context of the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) market.” This research contributes to our understanding of how innovation can have developmental impact in terms of providing better quality products to two-thirds of the world’s poorest populations.
Mr Hasan had to demonstrate academic rigour, enthusiasm for this area and his ability to work at an international level to gain his fully-funded place at the week-long workshop. This represents a tremendous personal and professional achievement for the researcher. As Mr Hasan shares:
“I feel strongly about making a contribution to Bottom of the Pyramid marketing research for the use of local and multinational companies operating in developing countries. I have submitted articles for journal publication using my own research in this area and the PhD at Kent Business School has allowed me to research my area of interest in greater depth to contribute to progression in the BOP market.”
The research Mr Hasan will present at the conference will include a survey conducted in Bangladesh and supports his PhD thesis for which he won grants from the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust and Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust. Mr Hasan also received a scholarship from University of Kent to support his research and is supervised by Dr Ben Lowe and Dr Dan Petrovici.
As Mr Hasan shares, this workshop will create unique opportunities for collaboration with the wider, international research community:
“I will meet an international group of researchers, practitioners, journal editors and policy makers interested in this area of research. I will also get the opportunity to visit social enterprises in the Cape Town region of South Africa.”
For more information about the Development through Enterprise Workshop please visit the website, or for further information about research at Kent Business School, please see our research pages or contact Samantha Lester on s.lester-527@kent.ac.uk.