Researcher of the month is Minna Halme

Minna Halme is currently heading the Corporate Responsibility research group at Aalto School of Economics. One of the research areas of the Aalto University CR Group is innovation toward sustainability. Among the most exciting current field of innovation with a major sustainability promise are product and service innovations for the poor market segments in emerging countries. Study on these innovations and needs of low-income consumers are central part of the project that Minna’s group is conducting in RAMI project, which belongs to the research program FoCus (Customer solutions for the future) of the Forestcluster Ltd. In 1997, Minna completed the first Doctoral Thesis on corporate environmental management in Finland, which the University of Tampere awarded as the best doctoral dissertation of the year. In her dissertation, Minna studied change of environmental management paradigms within the forest industry. Now, she is professor of Corporate Responsibility at Aalto School of Economics.

Base of Pyramid (BOP) approach focuses on innovations for the less fortunate. Instead of taking a traditional consumer or producer perspective, the BOP model creates innovations and profitable business by engaging the world’s low-income people as innovators and collaboration partners.

The aim of Minna’s research group in RAMI is to investigate consumer practices in BOP areas (disposable income less than 5€ per day). This is new type of approach to those markets. Earlier the focus has been on wealthy people in those markets. Practices are observed in four countries 1) India, 2) Russia, 3) Tanzania and 4) Brazil. Qualitative research methods such interviewing, photographing and observation are applied. The researchers observe and try to understand how the focal low-income people live their normal lives and how they use products.

The idea of BOP innovation is not to create cheap product versions from those of the developed markets, but rather design user-based innovations that fit with local needs. Innovating at and for the BOP-markets not only calls for companies to involve local consumers and business sector collaborators, but also civic organizations play an important role in helping to design and facilitate access of products of to BOP markets.

Minna believes that the Finnish forest industry has a huge potential for innovating new solutions to BOP markets. Being interested in combining high quality academic research and social impact of research, Minna enjoys working in the BOP-Rami project. She hopes that the findings will offer new ideas which not only create new business for the forest industry but also offer solution to certain poverty-related ills that many suffer of. As wood is a renewable resource, it may offer solutions that are also ecologically sustainable.

When not working, Minna likes, for example, growing tomatoes, gardening, yoga and ballroom dancing.