BioLite started out as an evening and weekend project for two men who wanted to design a more efficient camping stove. From those humble beginnings grew a company that has won accolades and attention for its innovative design. BioLite’s stove could potentially improve the lives of millions of people worldwide while combatting global climate threats. With its roots in sustainable design, the company has become a social enterprise dedicated to finding a market-based solution to the range of problems caused by the open fires that millions of people rely on for cooking and heating their homes. A unique feature of BioLite’s business model is its dual-innovation streams: The lessons and innovations gleaned from testing its HomeStove prototypes in developing countries like Ghana, Uganda and India are then adapted to create products that can be sold to the European and North American recreational markets. The revenues from sales in developed markets can then support the company, be reinvested in new research and help incubate its efforts in developing countries until those fledgling markets become self-sustaining. However, BioLite is at a transitional stage, having completed much of its field-testing, it has an adaptable and well-accepted HomeStove design. At the end of the case, the future viability of BioLite’s proposed model is brought into question given the complexities of successfully selling its product in a developing country.
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