SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship and Business Development

How can new and existing non-profits business develop and deliver more innovative programs and services to benefit their constituencies? How can non-profits managers keep their organizations vibrant and relevant to their communities? The answer is through constant entrepreneurship. Non-profit (or social) entrepreneurship is a powerful process that creates social benefits. As such, social entrepreneurship has the potential to fuel major contributions to society by helping non-profits harness innovation and creativity and bring these more effectively to bear on social issues. As social needs increase in scope and complexity, social entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly important. In recognition of this, American presidents over the last 30 years have acknowledged the important role that non-profit organizations play in finding creative solutions to social problems. Their efforts included Ronald Reagan's “private sector initiative,” George H. W. Bush's office to encourage “points of light,” Bill Clinton's launching of AmeriCorps, George W. Bush's “armies of compassion,” and Barack Obama's Office of Social Innovation and Social Investment Fund. In this chapter, we define and describe social entrepreneurship and discuss major issues and challenges that managers need to address as they seek to make their organizations increasingly entrepreneurial (Bornstein, 2010, 93).

Social Entrepreneurship

Over the last 15 years, the concept of social entrepreneurship has captured the imagination and interest of public, corporate, and civic leaders worldwide. As discussed in this chapter, social entrepreneurs have existed since people came together to form communities. But the current focus on applying entrepreneurial thinking to achieve social transformation is new—driven in part as a result of the shortcomings of governments, markets, and charitable organizations to come up with innovative, sustainable, and scalable solutions to increasingly complex societal challenges (Bornstein, 2010, 93).

An additional reason for the growing interest in the topic lies with the stories of social entrepreneurs and how they achieve their results despite often overwhelming odds. Their leadership trajectories are fascinating, a testimony to the power of human ingenuity to pursue noble goals. To understand how inspiring these people and their quest are, one need look no further than the efforts undertaken by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to prove that the poor are credit worthy by creating the Grameen Bank (Bornstein, 2010, 93).

But what is social entrepreneurship—and what is a social entrepreneur? What leadership role does a social entrepreneur play in society? How are social enterprises different from non-profits or from business? Why does social entrepreneurship matter; and what is the future of this emerging field?

This discussion will attempt to examine these questions. It will begin with an overview of entrepreneurship, because social entrepreneurship is simply an expression of entrepreneurship. The chapter goes on to highlight different legal/financial models social entrepreneurs select to further their work, showcasing each of these models by referring to three leading exemplars of social entrepreneurial practice. For each of the three, we examine the nature of their respective innovations, leadership characteristics, organizational arrangements, and their various pathways to scale. Additionally, we distinguish social entrepreneurship from corporate social responsibility and provide ...