Social Entrepreneurship

Definitions

This section presents some definitions of social entrepreneurship based on the academic works of experts in the field.

The Case of Definition by Roger L. Martin & Sally Osberg, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2007

"1) Identifying a stable but inherently unjust equilibrium that causes the exclusion, marginalization, or suffering of a segment of humanity that lacks the financial means or political clout to achieve any transformative benefit on its own.

2) Identifying an opportunity in this unjust equilibrium, developing a social value proposition, and bringing to bear inspiration, creativity, direct action, courage, and fortitude, thereby challenging the stable state’s hegemony.

3) Forging a new, stable equilibrium that releases trapped potential or alleviates the suffering of the targeted group, and through imitation and the creation of a stable ecosystem around the new equilibrium ensuring a better future for the targeted group and even society at large."

Example:

"Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and father of microcredit, provides a classic example of social entrepreneurship. The stable but unfortunate equilibrium he identified consisted of poor Bangladeshis’ limited options for securing even the tiniest amounts of credit. Unable to qualify for loans through the formal banking system, they could borrow only by accepting exorbitant interest rates from local moneylenders. More commonly, they simply succumbed to begging on the streets...Yunus confronted the system, proving that the poor were extremely good credit risks by lending thenow famous sum of $27 from his own pocket to 42 women from the village of Jobra. The women repaid all of the loan. Yunus found that with even tiny amounts of capital, women invested in their own capacity for generating income. With a sewing machine, for example, women could tailor garments, earning enough to pay back the loan, buy food, educate their children, and lift themselves up from poverty. Grameen Bank sustained itself by charging interest on its loans and then recycling the capital to help other women. Yunus brought inspiration, creativity, direct action, courage, and fortitude to his venture, proved its viability, and over two decades spawned a global network of other organizations that replicated or adapted his model to other countries and cultures, firmly establishing microcredit as a worldwide industry."

@misc{dees1998meaning,
  title={The meaning of social entrepreneurship},
  author={Dees, J Gregory and others},
  year={1998},
  publisher={Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership}
}

Social Entrepreneurship Eesearch: A Source of Explanation, Prediction, and Delight by Johanna Mair and Ignasi Marti, Journal of World Business, 2006 "A process involving the innovative use and combination of resources to pursue opportunities to catalyze social change and/or address social needs."

Assumptions:

"1) Social entrepreneurship is a process of creating value by combining resources in new ways 2) Resource combinations are intended primarily to explore and exploit opportunities to create social value by stimulating social change or meeting social needs 3) When viewed as a process, social entrepreneurship involves the offering of services and products but can also refer to the creation of new organizations"

Relevant Readings

The Case of Definition

http://www.ngobiz.org/picture/File/Social%20Enterpeuneur-The%20Case%20of%20Definition.pdf

@misc{dees1998meaning,
  title={The meaning of social entrepreneurship},
  author={Dees, J Gregory and others},
  year={1998},
  publisher={Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership}
}

Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951605000544

@article{mair2006social,

 title={Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight},
 author={Mair, Johanna and Marti, Ignasi},
 journal={Journal of world business},
 volume={41},
 number={1},
 pages={36--44},
 year={2006},
 publisher={Elsevier}

}

Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951605000751

@article{peredo2006social,

 title={Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept},
 author={Peredo, Ana Maria and McLean, Murdith},
 journal={Journal of world business},
 volume={41},
 number={1},
 pages={56--65},
 year={2006},
 publisher={Elsevier}

}