ABSTRACT
When solar was introduced into emerging markets in the 1980s, it seemed everyone wanted to get into the business – in addition to the earliest entrepreneurs, there were aid agencies, utilities, government departments, NGOs and socially conscious individuals. Though a bit chaotic, this was not totally unexpected. Solar, after all, was seen as having a big potential for poverty alleviation. This attracted many different types of individuals and organizations into directly distributing the innovation. Moreover, nobody really knew for sure at this stage who would be better or worse at doing it.
