Social entrepreneurship
Encyclopedia
Social entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles
to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change
(a social venture
). While a business entrepreneur
typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals. Social entrepreneurs are most commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors, but this need not preclude making a profit. Social entrepreneurship practised with a world view or international context is called international social entrepreneurship. See also Corporate Social Entrepreneurship
.
the founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
, and others such as Charles Leadbeater. From the 1950s to the 1990s Michael Young was a leading promoter of social enterprise and in the 1980s was described by Professor Daniel Bell
at Harvard as 'the world's most successful entrepreneur of social enterprises' because of his role in creating more than sixty new organizations worldwide, including a series of Schools for Social Entrepreneurs in the UK. Another British social entrepreneur is Lord Mawson OBE. Andrew Mawson was given a peerage in 2007 because of his pioneering regeneration work. This includes the creation of the renowned Bromley by Bow Centre in East London. He has recorded these experiences in his book "The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work" and currently runs Andrew Mawson Partnerships to help promote his regeneration work.. The National Center for Social Entrepreneurs was founded in 1985 by Judson Bemis and Robert M. Price, and Jerr Boschee served as its president and CEO from 1991 to 1999.
Although the terms are relatively new, social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship can be found throughout history. A list of a few historically noteworthy people whose work exemplifies classic "social entrepreneurship" might include Florence Nightingale
(founder of the first nursing school and developer of modern nursing practices), Robert Owen
(founder of the cooperative movement), and Vinoba Bhave
(founder of India's Land Gift Movement). During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries some of the most successful social entrepreneurs successfully straddled the civic, governmental, and business worlds - promoting ideas that were taken up by mainstream public services in welfare, schools, and health care.
, founder and manager of Grameen Bank
and its growing family of social venture businesses, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize
in 2006. The work of Yunus and Grameen echoes a theme among modern day social entrepreneurs that emphasizes the enormous synergies and benefits when business principles are unified with social ventures. In some countries - including Bangladesh and to a lesser extent, the USA - social entrepreneurs have filled the spaces left by a relatively small state. In other countries - particularly in Europe and South America - they have tended to work more closely with public organizations at both the national and local level.
In India, a social entrepreneur can be a person, who is the founder, co-founder or a chief functionary (may be president, secretary, treasurer, chief executive officer (CEO), or chairman) of a social enterprise
, which primarily is a NGO, which raises funds through some services (often fund raising events and community activities) and occasionally products. Rippan Kapur of Child Rights and You
and Jyotindra Nath
of Youth United
, are such examples of social entrepreneurs, who are the founders of the respective organizations. Jay Vikas Sutaria of Bhookh.com
is a social entrepreneur who is leveraging the power of the Internet to fight hunger in India. Upendra Agrawal and Jitendra Agrawal of click2plant.com are social entrepreneurs who are leveraging the power of the Internet to plant a tree online with the support of each and every individual click.
Another excellent example of a non-profit social enterprise in India is Rang De
http://www.rangde.org. Founded by Ramakrishna and Smita Ram in January 2008, Rang De is a peer-to-peer online platform that makes low-cost micro-credit accessible to both the rural and urban poor in India. Individuals get to directly invest in borrowers from across India, track their investments online and receive regular repayments, with a token 2% pa. ROI.
Today, nonprofits and non-governmental organizations, foundations, government
s, and individuals also play the role to promote, fund, and advise social entrepreneurs around the planet. A growing number of colleges and universities are establishing programs focused on educating and training social entrepreneurs. Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH recently established a partnership between the entrepreneurship department and Village Markets of Africa, allowing students hands-on experience with an organization working directly with producers.
In the UK in 2002 seven leading nonprofit organisations established UnLtd
- The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. It holds a £100 million endowment especially to invest in social entrepreneurs in the UK. UnLtd provides individuals with cash awards and practical support that includes coaching, training, and networking opportunities to help develop community projects. UnLtd Ventures is the in-house consultancy division of UnLtd and focuses on a number of outstanding social entrepreneurs, providing them with business support and helping them to scale up or replicate their organisations or get investment ready. Another of their operations, UnLtd Research, is becoming the world's primary source of evidence and thinking around social entrepreneurship. Its central purpose is to lead the global business, public policy, and academic debates about the role of social entrepreneurship in community regeneration, employment, and growth strategies.
The George Foundation
's Women's Empowerment program empowers women by providing education, cooperative farming, vocational training, savings planning, and business development. In 2006 the cooperative farming program, Baldev Farms, was the second largest banana grower in South India with 250 acres (1 km²) under cultivation. Profits from the farm are used for improving the economic status of the workers and for running the other charitable activities of the foundation.
Some have created for-profit and for-a-difference organizations. A recent example is Vikram Akula
, the McKinsey alumnus who started a microlending venture, SKS Microfinance, in villages of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Although this venture is for profit, it has initiated a sharp social change amongst poor women from villages. A great example is the activity of Brent Freeman http://www.roozt.com/About-Roozt/c3/p35/Roozt-Crew/pages.html, Norma LaRosa http://www.roozt.com/About-Roozt/c3/p35/Roozt-Crew/pages.html, and Nick Reder http://www.roozt.com/About-Roozt/c3/p35/Roozt-Crew/pages.html the co-founders of Roozt.com http://www.Roozt.com a new e-commerce site in the United States that connects online shoppers with socially responsible, social entrepreneur vendors through a daily deal format. Each customer's purchase also donates to a monthly cause. This online shopping site aims to empower everyday online shoppers to make a difference in the world through everyday purchases and is committed to providing double bottom line
value with every sale.
There are continuing arguments over precisely who counts as a social entrepreneur. Some have advocated restricting the term to founders of organizations that primarily rely on earned income – meaning income earned directly from paying consumers. Others have extended this to include contracted work for public authorities, while still others include grants and donations. This argument is unlikely to be resolved soon. Peter Drucker
, for example, once wrote that there was nothing so entrepreneurial as creating a new university: yet in most developed countries the majority of university funding comes from the state.
Organizations such as Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
, the Skoll Foundation
, the Omidyar Network
, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
, Athgo
, Root Cause, the Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Foundation, NESsT, New Profit Inc.
, and Echoing Green
among others, focus on highlighting these hidden change-makers who are scattered throughout the world. Ashoka's Changemakers "open sourcing social solutions" initiative Changemakers uses an online platform for what it calls collaborative competitions to build communities of practice around pressing issues.
The North American organizations tend to have a strongly individualistic stance focused on a handful of exceptional leaders, while others in Asia and Europe emphasize more how social entrepreneurs work within teams, networks, and movements for change. The Skoll Foundation, created by eBay's first president, Jeff Skoll, makes capacity-building "mezzanine level" grants to social entrepreneurial organizations that already have reached a certain level of impact, connects them through the annual Skoll World Forum and Social Edge, the Foundation's online community, and highlights their work through partnerships with the Sundance Institute
, Frontline World, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and other film and broadcast outlets. Skoll also supports the field of social entrepreneurship, including through Skoll's founding of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School
at Oxford University. Examples of social entrepreneurial business in the USA include NIKA Water Company, which sells bottled water in the USA and uses 100% of its profits to bring clean water to those in the developing world, as well as Newman's Own
which donates 100% of its profits to support various educational charities.
Youth social entrepreneurship is an increasingly common approach to engaging youth voice
in solving social problems. Youth organizations and programs promote these efforts through a variety of incentives to young people
. One such program is Young Social Pioneers, which invests in the power and promise of Australia's young leaders. The program, which is an initiative of The Foundation for Young Australians
, strengthens, supports and celebrates the role of young people in creating positive change in their communities. About Face International http://aboutfaceintl.org has a program that promotes youth social entrepreneurship amongst middle school, high school, and college students by providing interest-free loans, grants, and mentorship. They also help middle schools, high schools, and colleges form youth social entrepreneurship after-school clubs on site. Roozt's http://www.Roozt.com business model parallels such an approach by "paying it forward" with their commitment to help educate today's youth about the fundamentals of socially responsible businesses so that they may become progressive leaders of tomorrow.
Istanbul Bilgi Üniversity launched the BİLGİ Young Social Entrepreneur Awards project in May 2010 to identify, educate, and provide financial support for young social entrepreneurs in Turkey. Cooperating with International Youth Foundation, Sylvan/Laureate Foundation and TEGV, through this comprehensive strategy, İstanbul Bilgi University seeks to contribute to the development of a new generation of socially conscious citizens leading change in their communities.
Another youth social entrepreneurship organization is rooted in Turkey, the organization named SOGLA http://www.sogla.org (The Academy of Young Social Entrepreneurs). SOGLA provides young entrepreneur candidates (named SOGLA pioneers) with a high quality of education,and supports pioneers to develop, start-up, and sustain their social entrepreneurship projects.
Fast Company Magazine
annually publishes a list of the twenty-five best social entrepreneurs, which the magazine defines as organizations "using the disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems." In 2009, BusinessWeek
followed suit, publishing a review of America's twenty-five most promising social entrepreneurs, defined as "enterprising individuals who apply business practices to solving societal problems."
The internet
and social networking websites have been pivotal resources for the success and collaboration of many Social Entrepreneurs. These media allow ideas to be heard by broader audiences, help networks and investors to develop globally, and achieve their goals with little or no start-up capital. For example, starting with no capital and just an interesting idea, three Australian students (1egg1world) are in the process of raising AUS$1million for Charity starting out with just one egg, an excellent example of the growing opportunities brought by the internet to people with good ideas.
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
(a social venture
Social venture
A social venture is an undertaking by a firm or organization established by a social entrepreneur that seeks to provide systemic solutions to achieve a sustainable, social objective.- Background :...
). While a business entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals. Social entrepreneurs are most commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors, but this need not preclude making a profit. Social entrepreneurship practised with a world view or international context is called international social entrepreneurship. See also Corporate Social Entrepreneurship
Corporate Social Entrepreneurship
A corporate social entrepreneur is defined as "an employee of the firm who operates in a socially entrepreneurial manner; identifying opportunities for and/ or championing socially responsible activity; in addition to helping the firm achieve its business targets. The CSE operates regardless of...
.
History
The terms social entrepreneur and social entrepreneurship were used first in the literature on social change in the 1960s and 1970s. The terms came into widespread use in the 1980s and 1990s, promoted by Bill DraytonBill Drayton
William "Bill" Drayton is a social entrepreneur. Born in 1943 in New York City, U.S. Drayton was named by US News & World Report as one of America's 25 Best Leaders in 2005...
the founder of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
, and others such as Charles Leadbeater. From the 1950s to the 1990s Michael Young was a leading promoter of social enterprise and in the 1980s was described by Professor Daniel Bell
Daniel Bell
Daniel Bell was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor emeritus at Harvard University, best known for his seminal contributions to the study of post-industrialism...
at Harvard as 'the world's most successful entrepreneur of social enterprises' because of his role in creating more than sixty new organizations worldwide, including a series of Schools for Social Entrepreneurs in the UK. Another British social entrepreneur is Lord Mawson OBE. Andrew Mawson was given a peerage in 2007 because of his pioneering regeneration work. This includes the creation of the renowned Bromley by Bow Centre in East London. He has recorded these experiences in his book "The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work" and currently runs Andrew Mawson Partnerships to help promote his regeneration work.. The National Center for Social Entrepreneurs was founded in 1985 by Judson Bemis and Robert M. Price, and Jerr Boschee served as its president and CEO from 1991 to 1999.
Although the terms are relatively new, social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship can be found throughout history. A list of a few historically noteworthy people whose work exemplifies classic "social entrepreneurship" might include Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
(founder of the first nursing school and developer of modern nursing practices), Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
(founder of the cooperative movement), and Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave , born Vinayak Narahari Bhave often called Acharya , was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. He is best known for the Bhoodan Andolan...
(founder of India's Land Gift Movement). During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries some of the most successful social entrepreneurs successfully straddled the civic, governmental, and business worlds - promoting ideas that were taken up by mainstream public services in welfare, schools, and health care.
Current practice
One well-known contemporary social entrepreneur is Muhammad YunusMuhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize...
, founder and manager of Grameen Bank
Grameen Bank
The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...
and its growing family of social venture businesses, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 2006. The work of Yunus and Grameen echoes a theme among modern day social entrepreneurs that emphasizes the enormous synergies and benefits when business principles are unified with social ventures. In some countries - including Bangladesh and to a lesser extent, the USA - social entrepreneurs have filled the spaces left by a relatively small state. In other countries - particularly in Europe and South America - they have tended to work more closely with public organizations at both the national and local level.
In India, a social entrepreneur can be a person, who is the founder, co-founder or a chief functionary (may be president, secretary, treasurer, chief executive officer (CEO), or chairman) of a social enterprise
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
, which primarily is a NGO, which raises funds through some services (often fund raising events and community activities) and occasionally products. Rippan Kapur of Child Rights and You
Child Rights and You
Child Rights and You commonly abbreviated as CRY is a non-profit organization in India that aims to restore children's rights in India. The organisation was established in 1979. The organization partners with grass-roots Non governmental organisations to uplift thousands of Indian children denied...
and Jyotindra Nath
Jyotindra Nath
Jyotindra Nath is an Indian Social Entrepreneur. He is the founder President of Youth United, and has been involved in a number of social activities, primarily in the field of women emancipation, poverty and mass education through the organization Youth United.- References:...
of Youth United
Youth United
Youth United is an Indian Social Enterprise, Non-profit and Non Governmental Organization working for the betterment of society through the continuing efforts of the youth of the Nation, with the operational chapters in Delhi, Patiala, Pune, Bengaluru and headquarter in Chandigarh.Youth United ...
, are such examples of social entrepreneurs, who are the founders of the respective organizations. Jay Vikas Sutaria of Bhookh.com
Bhookh.com
Bhookh.com is an Indian click-to-donate site which is operated by Mumbai based Vikas Sutaria. It provides a cup of staple food for every unique click of the donate button. It is similar to The Hunger Site....
is a social entrepreneur who is leveraging the power of the Internet to fight hunger in India. Upendra Agrawal and Jitendra Agrawal of click2plant.com are social entrepreneurs who are leveraging the power of the Internet to plant a tree online with the support of each and every individual click.
Another excellent example of a non-profit social enterprise in India is Rang De
Rang De
Rang De is a non-profit organisation that allows Indians to lend money to fellow Indians that require a small amount of money to start or grow a business. Money can be lent in the form of a social investment through Rang De's on line portal . Rang De disburses loans to its borrowers through its...
http://www.rangde.org. Founded by Ramakrishna and Smita Ram in January 2008, Rang De is a peer-to-peer online platform that makes low-cost micro-credit accessible to both the rural and urban poor in India. Individuals get to directly invest in borrowers from across India, track their investments online and receive regular repayments, with a token 2% pa. ROI.
Today, nonprofits and non-governmental organizations, foundations, government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s, and individuals also play the role to promote, fund, and advise social entrepreneurs around the planet. A growing number of colleges and universities are establishing programs focused on educating and training social entrepreneurs. Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH recently established a partnership between the entrepreneurship department and Village Markets of Africa, allowing students hands-on experience with an organization working directly with producers.
In the UK in 2002 seven leading nonprofit organisations established UnLtd
UnLtd
UnLtd - The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom set up by seven organisations that promote Social entrepreneurship...
- The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. It holds a £100 million endowment especially to invest in social entrepreneurs in the UK. UnLtd provides individuals with cash awards and practical support that includes coaching, training, and networking opportunities to help develop community projects. UnLtd Ventures is the in-house consultancy division of UnLtd and focuses on a number of outstanding social entrepreneurs, providing them with business support and helping them to scale up or replicate their organisations or get investment ready. Another of their operations, UnLtd Research, is becoming the world's primary source of evidence and thinking around social entrepreneurship. Its central purpose is to lead the global business, public policy, and academic debates about the role of social entrepreneurship in community regeneration, employment, and growth strategies.
The George Foundation
The George Foundation
The George Foundation is a non-governmental organization established in 1995 with head office in Bangalore, India. Its founder is Dr. Abraham M...
's Women's Empowerment program empowers women by providing education, cooperative farming, vocational training, savings planning, and business development. In 2006 the cooperative farming program, Baldev Farms, was the second largest banana grower in South India with 250 acres (1 km²) under cultivation. Profits from the farm are used for improving the economic status of the workers and for running the other charitable activities of the foundation.
Some have created for-profit and for-a-difference organizations. A recent example is Vikram Akula
Vikram Akula
Vikram Akula is the founder and former chairperson of SKS Microfinance, an organization that offers microloans and insurance to poor women in impoverished areas of India. He stepped down as the SKS chief in November 2011.-Early life:...
, the McKinsey alumnus who started a microlending venture, SKS Microfinance, in villages of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Although this venture is for profit, it has initiated a sharp social change amongst poor women from villages. A great example is the activity of Brent Freeman http://www.roozt.com/About-Roozt/c3/p35/Roozt-Crew/pages.html, Norma LaRosa http://www.roozt.com/About-Roozt/c3/p35/Roozt-Crew/pages.html, and Nick Reder http://www.roozt.com/About-Roozt/c3/p35/Roozt-Crew/pages.html the co-founders of Roozt.com http://www.Roozt.com a new e-commerce site in the United States that connects online shoppers with socially responsible, social entrepreneur vendors through a daily deal format. Each customer's purchase also donates to a monthly cause. This online shopping site aims to empower everyday online shoppers to make a difference in the world through everyday purchases and is committed to providing double bottom line
Double bottom line
Double bottom line is a business term used in socially responsible enterprise and investment.While all businesses have a conventional bottom line to measure their fiscal performance—financial profit or loss—enterprises which seek a second bottom line look to measure their performance in...
value with every sale.
There are continuing arguments over precisely who counts as a social entrepreneur. Some have advocated restricting the term to founders of organizations that primarily rely on earned income – meaning income earned directly from paying consumers. Others have extended this to include contracted work for public authorities, while still others include grants and donations. This argument is unlikely to be resolved soon. Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...
, for example, once wrote that there was nothing so entrepreneurial as creating a new university: yet in most developed countries the majority of university funding comes from the state.
Organizations such as Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
, the Skoll Foundation
Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation is a social entrepreneurship foundation based in Silicon Valley, California, with a mission to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems...
, the Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a philanthrocapitalist investment firm established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $290 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual...
, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship provides platforms at the country, regional and global levels to promote social entrepreneurship.- History :...
, Athgo
ATHGO
Athgo International is an apolitical, not-for-profit organization that seeks to bring together people from ages 18 to 32 in a setting where they can receive orientation and be motivated to take action in one of three focus areas: Information and Communication Technologies and High Tech;...
, Root Cause, the Canadian Social Entrepreneurship Foundation, NESsT, New Profit Inc.
New Profit Inc.
New Profit Inc. is a venture philanthropy fund based in Boston, Massachusetts. With the support of individual donors, and its partner, Monitor Group, New Profit provides multi-year financial and strategic support to a portfolio of social entrepreneurs working in education, youth development, public...
, and Echoing Green
Echoing green
For the electronic band, see The Echoing Green , for the poem see The Echoing GreenEchoing Green is a twenty year-old global non-profit organization operating in the area of early-stage social sector investing...
among others, focus on highlighting these hidden change-makers who are scattered throughout the world. Ashoka's Changemakers "open sourcing social solutions" initiative Changemakers uses an online platform for what it calls collaborative competitions to build communities of practice around pressing issues.
The North American organizations tend to have a strongly individualistic stance focused on a handful of exceptional leaders, while others in Asia and Europe emphasize more how social entrepreneurs work within teams, networks, and movements for change. The Skoll Foundation, created by eBay's first president, Jeff Skoll, makes capacity-building "mezzanine level" grants to social entrepreneurial organizations that already have reached a certain level of impact, connects them through the annual Skoll World Forum and Social Edge, the Foundation's online community, and highlights their work through partnerships with the Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981 that actively advances the work of filmmakers and storytellers worldwide...
, Frontline World, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and other film and broadcast outlets. Skoll also supports the field of social entrepreneurship, including through Skoll's founding of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School
Saïd Business School
Saïd Business School is the business school of the University of Oxford in England, located on the north side of Frideswide Square on the former site of Oxford Rewley Road railway station. It is the University's centre of learning for graduate and undergraduate students in business, management...
at Oxford University. Examples of social entrepreneurial business in the USA include NIKA Water Company, which sells bottled water in the USA and uses 100% of its profits to bring clean water to those in the developing world, as well as Newman's Own
Newman's Own
Newman's Own is a food company and for-profit corporation founded by actor Paul Newman and author A. E. Hotchner in 1982. Newman received all of the profits from product sales and donated 100% of the proceeds, after taxes, to various educational and charitable organizations of his own selection...
which donates 100% of its profits to support various educational charities.
Youth social entrepreneurship is an increasingly common approach to engaging youth voice
Youth voice
Youth voice refers to the distinct ideas, opinions, attitudes, knowledge, and actions of young people as a collective body. The term youth voice often groups together a diversity of perspectives and experiences, regardless of backgrounds, identities, and cultural differences...
in solving social problems. Youth organizations and programs promote these efforts through a variety of incentives to young people
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...
. One such program is Young Social Pioneers, which invests in the power and promise of Australia's young leaders. The program, which is an initiative of The Foundation for Young Australians
The Foundation for Young Australians
The Foundation for Young Australians is an Australian non-profit organisation committed to improving the learning outcomes and life chances of young Australians.-Programmes:...
, strengthens, supports and celebrates the role of young people in creating positive change in their communities. About Face International http://aboutfaceintl.org has a program that promotes youth social entrepreneurship amongst middle school, high school, and college students by providing interest-free loans, grants, and mentorship. They also help middle schools, high schools, and colleges form youth social entrepreneurship after-school clubs on site. Roozt's http://www.Roozt.com business model parallels such an approach by "paying it forward" with their commitment to help educate today's youth about the fundamentals of socially responsible businesses so that they may become progressive leaders of tomorrow.
Istanbul Bilgi Üniversity launched the BİLGİ Young Social Entrepreneur Awards project in May 2010 to identify, educate, and provide financial support for young social entrepreneurs in Turkey. Cooperating with International Youth Foundation, Sylvan/Laureate Foundation and TEGV, through this comprehensive strategy, İstanbul Bilgi University seeks to contribute to the development of a new generation of socially conscious citizens leading change in their communities.
Another youth social entrepreneurship organization is rooted in Turkey, the organization named SOGLA http://www.sogla.org (The Academy of Young Social Entrepreneurs). SOGLA provides young entrepreneur candidates (named SOGLA pioneers) with a high quality of education,and supports pioneers to develop, start-up, and sustain their social entrepreneurship projects.
Fast Company Magazine
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
annually publishes a list of the twenty-five best social entrepreneurs, which the magazine defines as organizations "using the disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems." In 2009, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
followed suit, publishing a review of America's twenty-five most promising social entrepreneurs, defined as "enterprising individuals who apply business practices to solving societal problems."
The internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and social networking websites have been pivotal resources for the success and collaboration of many Social Entrepreneurs. These media allow ideas to be heard by broader audiences, help networks and investors to develop globally, and achieve their goals with little or no start-up capital. For example, starting with no capital and just an interesting idea, three Australian students (1egg1world) are in the process of raising AUS$1million for Charity starting out with just one egg, an excellent example of the growing opportunities brought by the internet to people with good ideas.
See also
- Corporate Social EntrepreneurshipCorporate Social EntrepreneurshipA corporate social entrepreneur is defined as "an employee of the firm who operates in a socially entrepreneurial manner; identifying opportunities for and/ or championing socially responsible activity; in addition to helping the firm achieve its business targets. The CSE operates regardless of...
- CollaborationCollaborationCollaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
- Collaborative methodCollaborative methodCollaborative methods are processes, behaviors and conversations that relate to collaboration between individuals. These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving...
- List of social entrepreneurs
- Social businessSocial businessSocial business, as the term is commonly used, was first defined by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and is described in his books Creating a world without poverty—Social Business and the future of capitalism and Building Social Business—The new kind of capitalism that serves...
- Social enterpriseSocial enterpriseA social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
- Social innovationSocial innovationSocial innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society....
- Social Venture CapitalSocial Venture CapitalSocial venture capital is a form of venture capital investing that provides capital to businesses deemed socially and environmentally responsible. These investments are intended to both provide attractive returns to investors and to provide market-based solutions to social and environmental issues...
- Impact maximization
- GeotourismGeotourismGeotourism is "best practice" tourism that sustains, or even enhances, the geographical character of a place, such as its culture, environment, heritage, and the well-being of its residents....
- Appropriate technologyAppropriate technologyAppropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
- Triple Bottom LineTriple bottom lineThe triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational success: economic, ecological, and social...
business theory - MicrofinanceMicrofinanceMicrofinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
- MicrofranchisingMicrofranchisingMicrofranchising is a business model that applies elements and concepts of traditional franchising to small businesses in the developing world. It refers to the systemization and replication of micro-enterprises. Microfranchising is broadly defined as small businesses that can easily be replicated...
Further reading
- David Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Oxford University Press (and others) ISBN 0-19-513805-8
- Charles Leadbeater, The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, DemosDemos (UK think tank)- History :Demos was founded in 1993 by former Marxism Today editor Martin Jacques, and Geoff Mulgan, who became its first director. It was formed in response to what Mulgan, Jacques and others saw as a crisis in politics in Britain, with voter engagement in decline and political institutions...
, 1996 - Joanna Mair, Jeffrey Robinson, and Kai Hockerts, Social Entrepreneurship, PalgravePalgrave- Companies :*Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publishing company[The Palgrave Society], studying the history and genealogy of families with the surname Palgrave or any of its many variants.- People :*John Palsgrave - Companies :*Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publishing company[The Palgrave...
, 2006. ISBN 1-4039-9664-4 - Peredo, A. M., & McLean, M. 2006. Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Review of the Concept. Journal of World Business, 41(1): 56-65.
- John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Entrepreneurs Creates Markets to Change the World, Harvard Business Press, 2008
- Robert Gunn and Christopher Durkin, Social Entrepreneurship: A Skills Approach, Policy Press, 2010
- J. Mark Munoz, International Social Entrepreneurship, Business Expert Press, 2010.
External links
- Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition, Sally Osberg and Roger Martin
- List of Social Entrepreneurship Organizations on WiserEarth