Last week, Orange Corners Research Coordinator Milou Derks participated in the New Business Model Conference 2025, hosted in striking Iceland. Milou attended the conference for the fifth time, and for the fourth consecutive year she chaired a dedicated track on business models in low-income countries—an area of growing global and adacemic interest.
The track, titled Innovative Business Models and Ecosystems for Sustainability Transition, brought together diverse perspectives from both the Global North and Global South. This year marked the first time these viewpoints were intentionally integrated, with the goal of enriching both academic understanding and practical relevance for sustainable development.
“By examining entrepreneurship in different contexts, we’re better equipped to distinguish between what is context-specific and what may be universally applicable,” Milou noted in her opening remarks.
The session featured 12 academic papers, two of which focused specifically on Orange Corners-related research:
🔹 “Exploring the Role of Resourcefulness in the Growth of African Digital Enterprises” – by Francesca Ciulli (Tilburg University), Milou Derks, Richard Van Hoolwerff (both Orange Corners) and Adenike Adeyemi (FATE Foundation/Orange Corners Nigeria).
🔹 “Purpose Under Pressure: Navigating the Risk of Mission Drift” – by Marijn Faling (ISS, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Milou Derks, Ward Karssemeijer and Maria Tamara Lozano (all Orange Corners).
Both papers explored critical themes for Orange Corners: how entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries navigate their ecosystems, and how purpose-driven enterprises manage the tension between impact and growth.
While entrepreneurship is often viewed as a driver of innovation, resilience and job creation in low- and middle-income countries, much remains to be understood about what kinds of support these entrepreneurs really need. As Milou emphasised during the session, bridging this knowledge gap is essential for ensuring that interventions are both effective and aligned with entrepreneurs’ realities and needs.
