Abstract
The intense competition and change by globalization and digitalization in the 21st century have made organizations and people face opportunities, threats, and uncertainty. Digitalization allows new and original business models and thus, presenting changes as a service or benefit to the consumer has become more important. A network is the most powerful instrument of social entrepreneurs or other employees to adapt to the new order. A very important tool of the new order is the blockchain technology which allows more secure, efficient, and trustworthy social enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is the process of establishing social enterprises to create social benefits and the relevant social value is general non-financial effects of programs, organizations, and interferences that include the wellbeing of people and communities, social capital, and the environment. This study tries to define and theorize that the results of digitalization can be managed by increasing social entrepreneurship and the resulting social impact and networking have an easing effect on this method.
TopIntroduction
The World becomes increasingly digitalized and this indicates the switch from an information society to a digital society. As industries become digitalized, efficiency and speed in production increase while costs and defective manufacturing decrease. Digitalization is generally claimed to be the reason for the occurrence of new and productive business models. The digital age is usually associated with productivity and efficiency but it is obvious that the digital age has also influence on labor, resource and power allocation, equality in opportunity, and income. This fact remarkably increases the necessity of the potential effects of social entrepreneurs. This is the only way to balance equality in opportunity and the existing income. As an unprecedented platform in history, digitalization has generated new occupations and jobs and has democratized the ways of reaching the masses, therefore, it is possible to consider these events and the effect of their scale as dynamic changes that can foster the development of social entrepreneurship.
This chapter describing social digital entrepreneurship reveals the facilitator role of digitalization in the creation of social value. The study presents a comparative analysis by revealing the European Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (EIDES), the 2020 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), and the table of Estimated number and degree of acceptance of Social Enterprises in Europe. The European Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (EIDES)(ec.europa.eu) contains the digital entrepreneurship scores of the European countries. To date, there is no social digital entrepreneurship index yet.
Understanding digital entrepreneurship offers new opportunities for social entrepreneurs for creating social value (Santana, 2017) that leads to well-being (Galindo-Martin, et al., 2019). However, there are limited studies investigating the effects of digitalization on social entrepreneurship. This study examines the social digital entrepreneurship concept within the scope of Network Theory. The main purpose of the study is to reveal the connections between digitalization and social entrepreneurship, how digitalization can pave the way for efficient and successful social enterprises, and comment on the future of both concepts in the context of a new – more digitalized – order after the COVID-19 crisis. Since there is a limited number of studies regarding social digital entrepreneurship, this study is a compilation study which aims to discuss these connections and forecast the future of them while comparing indices and aims to contribute to the related literature.
The chapter is organized as follows. In the first section, the rise of digitalization is explained through definitions and features of digitalization. Based this framework, digital entrepreneurship concept is described. In the second section, the impact of digitalization on social entrepreneurship is discussed and digital social entrepreneurship concept is presented. Lastly, future directions, limitations and contributions of the study are explained.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Blockchain: It is a distributed database that is protected against security gaps, encrypted on a network, and ensures the management of the data.
Digitalization: It is the utilization of digital technologies to change a business model and supply new income and value-producing opportunities and it is the process of moving to a digital business.
Social Digital Entrepreneurship: Social digital entrepreneurship represents the “social” side of digital entrepreneurship implying a more humane use of the digital world and entrepreneurship.
COVID-19: It is a disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus.
Social Entrepreneurship: Social entrepreneurship is the process of establishing social enterprises to create social benefits.
Social Value: It is the quantification of the relative importance that people experience about the changes in their lives.
Digital Entrepreneurship: It is about creating new ventures, converting existing businesses by developing original digital technologies or their original usage.