Sasta Bhojan Sewa: the pricing dilemma

Kaur, Harsimar and Narayanamurthy, Gopalakrishnan ORCID: 0000-0002-3119-5248 (2021) Sasta Bhojan Sewa: the pricing dilemma. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, 11 (1). pp. 1-17.

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Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Learning outcomes</jats:title> <jats:p>After studying this case, students should be able to: understand the process of opportunity identification for forming social enterprises (knowledge), discuss various concepts related to social entrepreneurship and not-for-profit firms (comprehension), apply tools to differentiate between social and commercial enterprises (application), analyze the role of environmental factors like culture in influencing business (analysis) and develop decision-making skills by critically evaluating the options (evaluation).</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Case overview/synopsis</jats:title> <jats:p>Sasta Bhojan Sewa (SBS) was one of the key projects of Parupkar Sewa Society. The social venture initiated by Jaswinder Singh, a young resident of Ambala (a small town in Haryana, India), got registered as a not-for-profit society in the year 2018. Mr. Singh initiated various social welfare projects since the year 2006 when he got inspired from the history of Sikh Gurus. As years passed, he was able to employ more and more people. This led to the development of a social venture, which had 33 employees at the end of the year 2019. The society was running seven major projects with the help of dasvandh (donations). Project SBS was about providing home-like hygienic meals to people at merely INR10. There were 11 canteens in Ambala city and cantonment, which were being run under that project. Around 1,500 people were eating daily in those canteens, out of which around 70–80 people were not able to pay even INR10. The project had employed 30 people. The salaries of the staff and other operating expenses like liquid petroleum gas (LPG) expense, transportation cost and electricity were met through dasvandh (donations) from the local households. When the project was initiated, the cost of preparing a meal was INR10, but by the end of 2019, the cost went up to INR12 per meal due to food inflation. The meal was still being sold at INR10 at a loss of INR2 per meal. On December 28, 2019, as founder of the society, Mr. Singh was thinking of raising the selling price to INR12 per meal, which had to be implemented on January 01, 2020 but he was doubtful in doing so. He thought increasing the price might defeat the purpose of starting SBS as he was reflecting on how poor people were and how each rupee mattered to them. He was also considering that it might affect the goodwill of the society that was known for selling food at an extremely low price. By using the example of SBS, we explain various concepts of not-for-profit social enterprises like opportunity identification, key drivers, business model canvas and environmental effects in this teaching note. The teaching note also provides cost–benefit analysis of the available options to facilitate effective decision-making.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Complexity academic level</jats:title> <jats:p>Undergraduate and graduate-level business programs.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Supplementary materials</jats:title> <jats:p>Teaching notes are available for educators only.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Subject code</jats:title> <jats:p>CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Nutrition
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2021 07:20
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2024 14:56
DOI:	10.1108/eemcs-06-2020-0235
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3119126