Product Sourcing & Design

Where do social enterprises get their products from? We saw 3 major distinctions among the organizations surveyed:

Customized vs. Uniform Products

Do they use uniform products (solar lanterns, clean cookstoves), or do they customize the product for each customer (often solar home systems, community projects)?

In-House vs. Outsourced Design

Do the organizations design their products themselves or do they distribute someone else’s products?

Foreign vs. Local Production

Are products manufactured locally or sourced from a foreign larger-scale supplier (generally China)?