What is "Social" in Social Entrepreneurship?

Week 3: What is Social?KIEI 452

Gabrielle Lyon, PhD

WEEK 3: What is Social?

How & When: Action Plan

Meet with Client (1) (2) (2) (3) (4)

Conduct background research

Conduct interviews

Agree on recommendations

Fill in research holes

Build client implementation plan

Finalize presentation and present

WEEK: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

(1) Understand business (2) Update on progress (3) Review findings (4) Final presentation

Gabrielle Lyon-KIEI452-Week 3

Observations…

ABSENCE OF RED FLAGS

DATA FETISH

TIDY

MUSHY ROLES

ALIGNMENT "Sniff Test”

NEXT STEPS

Week 3: What is Social?

WEEK 3: What is Social?


37 definitions of “social entrepreneurship”


37 Definitions of “Social Entrepreneurship”


KIEI 452 Responses to “What is Social?”


Common Definition of “Social Entrepreneurship” (Dees, 1998, 2001)

Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector, by:

• – Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),

• – Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,

• – Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,

• – Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and

• – Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.


Social as the modifier…


Common Characteristics

Social Sphere/Sociality

Innovation/Disruption

Market Orientation


Social Spheres/ “Sociality”

• Welfare & health services (Aravind eye hospitals in India)• Education & training• Economic development (ex. Work integration social enterprises like

Cara)• Disaster relief & international aid (Water.org)• Social justice & political empowerment (Change.org)• Environmental planning & management


Social as an Organizational Process

• Employment practices (employing low-skilled workers)• Supply chain management (Fair trade)• Energy usage & recycling (citizen-based renewable energy co-ops)• Access to credit & financial services (microfinance)


Innovation/Disruption

• Schumpter’s “creative destruction” • -> Change systems and realign markets around new economic

equillibriums. These can be small scale or large scale.


Market Orientation

• For-profit social enterprise – operates in a commercial market & reinvests profits in the social mission

• Continuous production of goods & services with economic risk – who will PAY? Service recipients may not be paying for services

rendered– Note: suggests social is transactional only

• Minimizing paid work or a significant volunteer/in-kind element at the heart of the business model (Chicago Architecture Foundation)

• Good business practices (performance metrics, continual improvement, focus on achieving mission, intentionality about organizational culture)

Social mission has primacy & profits are a means to reach the mission


Social Entrepreneurship Typologies


Fowler (2000)

• “Integrated” – economic activity itself produces social outcomes• “Re-interpreted” – existing NPO increases/amplifies earned

revenue• “Complementary” – commercial revenues cross-subsidize the

social mission of a related non-profit


Alter (2006)

Distinguishes social enterprise models based on • Orientation to mission (Spectrum from mission oriented to profit

oriented)• Target audience • How services are related to business activities

Three models:• Embedded - social programs are INHERENT in business activities.

(ex. Fair Trade)• Integrated - social programs overlap with business activities • External – external business activities fund social programs (ex.

Health or education NPOs)


Martin/Osberg (2007)

For something to be considered a social enterprise:• needs to be designed to achieve scale or inspire replication• it can't "just" be a social service (ex. one library; it needs to be a

vision for a library SYSTEM)• social activism is not equated to social entrepreneurship. In the

case of Martin/Osberg they actually call out activists with some concerns. In their minds "activists don't take direct action. They try to influence others (NGOs, consumers, workers) to take action. They go on to say "strategic nature of the action is distinct in its emphasis on influence rather than direct action."


What Social Entrepreneurship is NOT

• Not a discrete sector. Not a social economy. It’s a set of hybrid organizations & processes that take form and action in different institutional spaces and across existing sectors.

• Not a new form of Corporate Responsibility– CSR isn’t necessarily entreprenuerial or innovative; often about

aligning practices with norms, often those established by laws or policies

– Profit maximization is the ultimate goal, profit is directed towards shareholders

• Not social innovation– Social innovation => new solutions to social needs that are not

primarily market-based solutions. Ex. Participatory budgeting.– Social change outside of a market-based solution


Where Conversations Are Heading

• Field Building – Ashoka– Echoing Green– Schwab Foundation– Skoll Foundation– Omidiyar Network

• Global Connectedness & “New Localism” (new media facilitating interactions amongst social entrepreneurs, funders & other stakeholders)

• Public/Private Partnerships (Clinton Global Initiative)

• Collective Impact


Entrepreneurship Theory Rests on Entrepreneurs…

“Entrepreneur” -> PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS required to identify and pursue opportunity and the creation of a "singular outcome."

In shorthand:

1) an individual sees a "suboptimal" situation as an opportunity for a • new solution• new product• new service• new process

2) The individual is "inspired" to change the status quo. They think "creatively" and develop a new "solution/product/service/process" then

3) They "take action."


What if social isn’t the modifier?


The Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Revisited


What might we be missing….

For individuals…• Assumption that everyone can participate; • Self-efficacy- the idea that everyone understands themselves to be

able to be see themselves as “change-makers” and involved citizens

• Idea that people who have "problems" or "suboptimal" situations can name and create the solutions.


What might we be missing…

For organizations and “social enterprises”• Strategic assessment of the value of engaging in endeavors to

change the status quo collectively - not just as individuals or as individual organizations

• An accurate analysis and critique of the status quo. (i.e.– there is a mainstream culture– power dynamics that do not take into consideration or represent

minorities, disenfranchised populations or people who have a different experience.)

• Important lessons about how to design for social change

What is "Social" in Social Entrepreneurship?

Business

social change

social needs

social value

social sector

social service

social economy

social enterprise models

social programs ex