Six years ago, the United Nations established 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Among those goals: end poverty in all forms everywhere and eliminate hunger. With more than one-third of the world’s population living in poverty, the challenge is daunting.
Laté Lawson-Lartego (D.B.A. ’16) has devoted his career to addressing these and other inequities, first at CARE and now at Oxfam America, where he is interim co-vice president of global programs.
As a student in Robinson’s Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) program, Lawson-Lartego focused on these longtime passions, researching and defending a dissertation on the design and implementation of a microfranchising network to provide small-scale farmers in Bangladesh with the infrastructure, information, and technology needed to access markets, improve productivity, and adapt to climate volatility.
The research revealed that small-scale farmers who were supported with agricultural products and services through the microfranchise network doubled their outcome and increased their income by 31 percent. They also reduced supply chain costs by 40 percent and increased sales by 34 percent.
Laté Lawson-Lartego
Lawson-Lartego and his dissertation advisor, professor and D.B.A. program academic director Lars Mathiassen, published a paper based on the dissertation, Microfranchising to Alleviate Poverty: An Innovation Network Perspective, in the July 2021 edition of the “Journal of Business Ethics.” The marquee publication is one of 50 premier journals the “Financial Times” uses to evaluate the research impact of institutions.
Lars Mathiassen
Preparing the dissertation for publication in a top-tier journal was a rigorous and lengthy process. Lawson-Lartego and Mathiassen worked on it under the auspices of the Center for Engaged Business Research. Now in its fifth year, the center promotes engaged scholarship and the examination of contemporary business problems through collaboration between D.B.A. alumni, Robinson faculty, and doctoral students.
Faculty and staff can download Microfranchising to Alleviate Poverty: An Innovation Network Perspective through the Georgia State library. Other readers may request the paper by contacting [email protected].