Civic Capitalism: Entrepreneurs, Their Ventures and Communities

Abstract

Entrepreneurs and everyday businessmen and women have long engaged in different kinds of civic-minded activities. This study explores ways that urban entrepreneurs and managers engage in civic activities while pursuing business growth. In this preliminary analysis of owners and managers who have participated in a technical assistance program geared for entrepreneurs who are ready to take their existing venture "to the next level", we identify a kind of entrepreneur whose business model incorporates a social mission. These are not "social entrepreneurs" who engage in business practices in order to push their social agenda. Nor are they mimicking businesses that follow a "corporate social responsibility" model because they were shamed into it or believe it will be good for their bottom line. These are people whose ventures must make a profit if their social mission is to be achieved. They run what we call a "civic enterprise". Their behavior reflects a kind of "civic-minded capitalism".

Business and social entrepreneurs in the UK: gender, context and commitment

“…The arrangement of organisations is more like a spectrum than a neat classification. For example, scholars have identified a class of "civic entrepreneurs" who are business entrepreneurs whose business model includes a social mission (Monti, Ryan, Brush, and Gannon, 2007). This has caused difficulties in defining the boundaries of social enterprises (Jones and Keogh, 2006) and, as a result, distinguishing social entrepreneurs from business entrepreneurs.…”

Small Business Orientation: A Construct Proposal

“…Yet the civic-minded firm will find net value in the social capital created via its actions (Besser, Miller, & Perkins, 2006), including increased business success (Miller & Besser, 2005). Thus, civic mindedness is a dimension which although similar to CSR, is actually much more like Monti, Ryan, Brush, and Gannon’s (2007) concept of civic-minded capitalism, where focus on the community is seen as a measure of firm success (and exemplifies broad mindedness): it is a central part of the SBO mindset, and guides the manager’s strategic decision making.…”

“…Concurrent to the exhibition of performance multiplicity is the realization that the business has many stakeholder groups that affect and are affected by business operations. Thus, there are many parties to whom the business is accountable and many specific bases on which managers with an SBO “keep score.” The value of performance-multiplicity for managers is that it enables those individuals to balance competing demands on their businesses and recognize interdependencies with relevant stakeholders that can affect business viability over the long term (e.g., Monti et al., 2007).…”

“…An SBO can drive managers to adopt broad-based (and broad-minded) balanced scorecards (e.g., Kaplan & Norton, 1992)—ones incorporating environmental, social, and sustainability criteria, for example—for performance measurement purposes. These sort of performance measures might include ethical performance (Gatewood & Carroll, 1991), overall social performance (Kroeger & Weber, 2014), eco-friendly policies (Burgin & Hardiman, 2010), customer success (Moore, 2007), community engagement (Monti et al., 2007), and team effectiveness (Pun & White, 2005). The performance measures used to evaluate the organization will coincide with the values of the manager, and contrary to measures focused solely on financial performance will be relevant to a wide range of stakeholders, based on universal values such as social justice, equality, broad mindedness, and a unity with nature.…”

The Role of Cooperatives and CSR: The Case of the French Agricultural Sector

“…Moreover, the knowledge and beliefs of the managers derive in part from influences received from their familial, cultural, and ethical environments (Monti et al, 2007). It has been found that level of education constitutes a favorable factor in the acceptance of CSR.…”