"Commercial agriculture in Mozambique remains underdeveloped and successful cases of smallholder inclusive business models are rare. In addition to “doing business” constraints at a macro level, smallholder inclusive business models – whether in “outgrower” schemes or other arrangements – pose additional challenges to competitiveness. Low-quality product, insufficient and inconsistent supply, mutual issues of mistrust and a post-war culture of hand-outs can make it more profitable for some companies to import primary produce or work with large-scale farmers. CB Farm Fresh is a smallholder-inclusive vegetable processor and distributor serving the extractives industry in Tete. This case study aims to understand how smallholder-inclusive business models can be successfully implemented by assessing CB Farm Fresh’s end-to-end model."

"A professor at Brazil’s prestigious Federal University of Viçosa saw a need on campus for an incubator to support technologically-oriented businesses, including agribusinesses. This resulted in the CENTEV Technology Incubator, which is partially funded by the university but which also receives state and private grants. Its function is to nurture entrepreneurs to develop viable technology based businesses by providing them with management assistance and augmenting their technical capabilities with expert academic advice. The incubator’s 24 graduates are still in business, with average revenues of $2.5 million a year."

"This report explores a refreshed perspective on the long term viability of impact investing and presents the "Impact Investing Roadmap" - a framework that investors can use to clarify their vision for impact investing, define stages of impact investing activities and identify tactical steps to develop an investment strategy. Those tactical steps include designing an impact investing model, managing issues of organizational change and if desired, engaging with the robust and supportive impact investing ecosystem."

"Many Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) technologies fail to achieve their full potential impact due to low levels of adoption by smallholder farmers and difficulties in scaling CSA. This paper presents how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can act as change agents for the uptake of CSA technologies where their business models may be seen as adoption and scaling mechanisms. Drawing upon our fieldwork in Punjab (India) during which over 100 respondents have been interviewed, critical issues and enabling factors for the business model of two types of SMEs, i.e. farmer cooperatives and individual service providers of climate smart technologies have been identified. Enabling factors supporting adoption are driven by scientific and practical evidence of CSA technologies, good partnership between SMEs and research institutes, good customer relationships and effective channels through farmers' field trials. Critical issues consist of distortive government subsidies on energy and the lack of market intelligence affecting the profitability of the business model. Scaling is enhanced through market intelligence and a favouring regulatory landscape. However, difficult socio-economic circumstances and distortive government subsidies limit the role of SMEs business model as mechanism for scaling."

"Management has a large effect on the productivity of medium and large firms. But does management matter in micro and small firms, where the majority of the labor force in developing countries works? We develop 26 questions that measure business practices in marketing, stock-keeping, record-keeping, and financial planning. These questions have been administered in surveys in Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. We show that variation in business practices explains as much of the variation in outcomes-sales, profits, and labor productivity and total factor productivity-in microenterprises as in larger enterprises."

"Business support interventions in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) direct a large amount of resources to SMEs, with the assumption that institutional constraints impede small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from generating profits and employment at the firm level, which in turn is thought to impede economic growth and poverty reduction. Yet despite this abundance of resources, very little is known about the impact of such interventions. To address this gap, this systematic review analyses evaluations of SME support services in LMICs to help inform policy debates pertaining to SMEs and business support services. This review examines the available evidence on the effects of SME support services in LMICs on firm-level performance indicators (such as revenues, profits, and productivity), employment generation, and labour productivity."

"The paper seeks to inform the reader with: An insider’s perspective of on-the-ground challenges faced in balancing the right mix of investments impact on missions of social enterprises [and] Recommendations that could help guide the growing social investment arena on how to support the development of sustainable social enterprises."

"According to our findings, the number of accelerators serving impact enterpriseshas grown rapidly over the last five years (over 70 percent of the accelerators surveyed were founded in 2008 or later). Despite this strong growth, there is only lim-ited research and data-driven analysis of accelerators’ role in the impact invesment ecosystem. This report aims to generate a greater understanding of accelera-tors in that sector and is part of a broader strategy to analyze, evaluate, benchmark,and strengthen accelerators. It is not intended to be a comprehensive evaluation ofimpact accelerators but an initial assessment of the landscape of these organizations."

"Climate change will have its largest impacts on developing countries, with poor populations particularly hard hit and unable to adequately adapt. There is an opportunity for developing countries to pursue a complementary approach, emphasizing building up the capabilities of local firms to participate in the business opportunities surrounding climate change. Climate change therefore represents an opportunity for developing countries to build local green industries that can drive sustainable economic growth and provide environmental benefits.

This report offers insight to policy makers and other stakeholders seeking to develop competitive green industries in developing countries. It provides an overview and estimate of the market opportunity for climate and clean technology business in developing countries over the coming decade. It identifies which aspects of these markets are most accessible to local firms and to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular. Using a newly gathered set of firm data, it identifies which parts of the value chain are already being targeted by local industry. Finally, it provides a set of actions that can be considered for countries that intend to build up local green industries."

"In this report we study the impacts of giving cash grants of approximately $150 and basic business skills training to the very poorest and most excluded women in a war-affected region, northern Uganda. The program was designed and implemented by an Italian non-governmental organization (NGO), AVSI Uganda, with decades of experience serving this population."