It’s not a secret that companies want to enter emerging markets and cater to the new and exploding middle class in countries such as India and China. It’s also nothing new to hear about the development of sub-market products to increase access to new technology and ideas. Case in point, the $100 laptop per child (it’s now actually $200). Business and innovation target markets from the top-down and the bottom-up. As a result, the line between business and social value is becoming hazier.

Fast Company and Business Week recently published pieces featuring innovative products designed for emerging markets in Africa and Asia that have “tricked-up” to developed markets such as in the US and Europe. This tricking-up is a result of the growing demand for innovative, but affordable products in developed countries, especially given budget cuts and zero overhead growth. One example of tricking-up is GE’s affordable and light-weight electrocardiograph (ECG) machine; originally developed for traveling medical practitioners abroad that has found relevant and growing demand in resource-constrained hospitals and health centers here in the US.

Trickle-up innovation represents a new wave of next-generation social strategies. It provides corporations with a compelling, profitable business case to continue developing and leveraging cost-effective, innovative strategies that meet social needs not only in Africa, but also in America.