Abstract
The chapter aims to conceptualize social entrepreneurship, together with its contribution to social value creation and its relation to innovation and sustainability. The chapter begins by theorizing about social entrepreneurship and the desirable characteristics of a social entrepreneur. Comparisons between the different schools of taught, namely The Social Enterprise School and the Social Innovation School are made in order to understand trends and similarities that might affect the development of a social entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, the links between social entrepreneurship, sustainability and social innovation are explored, as well as issues and challenges that might occur in relation to funding strategies, tax and legal regulations, public investment, public awareness and impact measurement. The article concludes that social entrepreneurship contributes to tackling social problems in an innovative manner, bringing together different actors such as government, private companies and social entrepreneurs.
TopBackground
Social entrepreneurship is defined by the creation of social value, rather than personal wealth (Dees, 1998). According to the literature, its emergence began in Europe with the development of social cooperatives in Italy (1995), social purpose companies in Belgium (1995), social solidarity cooperatives in Portugal (1998), and cooperatives with a collective interest in France (2001). In the US, since the economic and financial crisis of 2008, there has been an increased interest in social entrepreneurship and social innovation given the dissatisfaction generated by other forms of programs, including the lack of community participation and their environmental, social and economic impacts (Moulaert, MacCallum, Mehmood & Hamdouch, 2013). Therefore, the concept itself is a reasonably new one and the area can certainly be described as an “emerging field.”
According to Brock and Ashoka (2008, cited in Guo & Bielefeld, 2014) the first social entrepreneurship class was taught at Harvard University in the mid 1990s, followed by other universities in the USA (Les reperes de l´AVISE, 2007); the first European course was at the University of Geneva in Switzerland in 2003.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Shared Value: A management strategy in which competitive advantage and social responsibility combine.
Social Innovation: The process of developing and implementing innovative solutions to social and environmental issues.
Sustainability: The concept of continual viability, including the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Programs that are done by businesses in order to benefit society while boosting their own brands or services.
Sustainable: Something that continues to be viable.
Innovation: A new form of achieving or creating something.