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Contribution to Book
Transformational Gaming: Zynga’s Social Strategy (A), (B), (C)
Darden Business School Cases (2012)
  • laura hartman, DePaul University
  • e. mead, University of Virginia - Main Campus
  • d. christmas
  • p. werhane, DePaul University
Abstract

In this novel and extremely timely case study, we will first define and explore our mental models surrounding organizations’ role in poverty alleviation. We will then examine one of our most enduring and destructive mindsets surrounding the role of for-profits in developing economies: the obstructive perception that the interests of private organizations in the alleviation of global poverty should not be vested but instead should originate from charitable purposes. This caustic model, which describes as unseemly any engagement between for-profit organizations and markets at the Base of the Pyramid, not only is extraordinarily hindering to the enterprise but, unfortunately, also is devastating in its impact on those living in poverty since it denies them the benefit of one of their greatest potential benefactor sectors. The purpose of the case study is to illustrate the power of out-of-the-box imagination and creativity, in ways not before utilized, to break through these otherwise obtrusive mindsets.

Publication Date
2012
Publisher
Darden Business Publishing, University of Virginia, Darden School Foundation
Citation Information
laura hartman, e. mead, d. christmas and p. werhane. "Transformational Gaming: Zynga’s Social Strategy (A), (B), (C)" CharlottesvilleDarden Business School Cases Vol. Case Study Nos. UVA-E-0360 (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/laurahartman/47/