What is social entrepreneurship?
Social entrepreneurship has become an important phenomenon in today’s world: according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 3.2% individuals are currently trying to start social entrepreneurial ranging from 0.3% in South Korea to 10.1% in Peru. At the same time, the rate of commercial start-ups averages 7.6% in the world.
These numbers indicate global interest in social entrepreneurship which puts creating social value at the top priority which is clearly distinguishing commercial and social entrepreneurship. As defined by the theorists, social entrepreneurship is the simultaneous pursuit of economic, social and environmental goals by enterprising ventures (Haugh, 2007) with social entrepreneurs as change agents (Dees, 2001) seeking for social value (Certo and Miller, 2008).
These features clearly contrast with profits-making at a commercial business. One of the salient attributes of social entrepreneurship is targeting problems of a local expression but global relevance, such as access to water, promoting small-business creation, or waste management. Most of the solutions offered by social enterprises are first validated in the local contexts, and afterward, if successful, are replicated to other regions. To be efficient, social entrepreneurs often develop new business models which may work under charity, social activism, a philanthropic organization, or for-profit social business. Some entrepreneurs prefer allocating resources to neglected problems in under-resourced areas(Santos, 2009). What makes social entrepreneurship especially distinctive is altruism assumed as a social entrepreneur’s motivation which stands opposite from self-interest in commerce stream. Some other motives to social engagement are a sense of purpose or compassion, but that stays pretty debated issue.
What goes with no doubts is the immeasurable value of a personality — going through a bunch of ‘like-no-other’ experiences makes a person unique. In our podcast, we’ve already had a chance to talk to 6 unique and amazing entrepreneurs — Howard Weinstein, Troy Wiseman, Dr. Mitch Besser, Noam Angrist, Galen Welsh, Megan Fallone — who have been running life-changing social-oriented initiatives around the world. However, their social engagement was not ‘given’ them from the very beginning — it took them years to discover what they wanted to be, and how they could change themselves and the world around. Go to our podcast and listen to the unique stories of these world-changers.
Doubtlessly, running a social change is a brave move which requires moral strength, ambitiousness, social consciousness which level is if far beyond the average, great social enthusiasm multiplied by a deep understanding of who you are and what you do. As in the case of commercial business, before running a social project you should get first aware of the consequences: what we’ve known from our guests is that running a project may hit not only the way (and place) you live but also relations, income level, and the work-life balance you’ve been building for years. But the hardest thing is giving hope to people, and following this internal calling ‘I’ll do it for them, not for me’.
Yet, we are still sure that everybody can make it, even if the understanding of who you are and what you (wanna) do is tricky. This is why we hope both starters and dreamers will find the materials we’ll be sharing next pretty handy for raising entrepreneurial ideas and inspiration.
Stay tuned, get inspired and join the world-changers.
