Social Entrepreneurship and Communication for Development and Social Change

Abstract

This article argues that social entrepreneurship has not yet been adequately defined even though it is increasingly being used in social change/development practice. Muhammad Yunus, creator of the Grameen Bank and microlending, and Bill Drayton, founder of the global change agency Ashoka, have practiced social change through social entrepreneurship for more than 30 years. Increasingly, the development community has been adopting many of its practices. The basic process of social entrepreneurship involves: defining a social goal for the solution of a serious problem; innovation in solving the problem; ability to expand the organization to serve large numbers of people (scaling up); focusing on the social bottom line with empirical evidence (impact evaluation). Three cases are briefly reviewed to illustrate this process. Finally the article examines how these practices might help Communication for Development (C4D) to better adapt its own practices in achieving real change with people.

Formal Institutional Environment Influence on Social Entrepreneurship in Developed Countries

“…Social-oriented entrepreneurship plays a vital role in society developing in emerging markets (Yiu et al, 2014;Kot et al, 2016;Bernat et al, 2016). According to the concept of the researcher E. McAnany (2012), social entrepreneurship carries a high potential for promoting social changes, the development of regional societies, economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability.…”

Бизнес И социальное Предпринимательство: Обзор Основных Теоретических Моделей

“…Закрепляется тенденция социально-ориентированного управления и корпоративной социальной ответственности на предприятиях с любой организационно-правовой формой и размером. СП несет в себе значительный потенциал социальных изменений, развития региональных обществ, экономического роста, сокращения бедности, экологической устойчивости (Yiu et al 2014;Azmat 2013;McAnany 2012). Исследования о влиянии СП, включая вопрос о соотношении технологических инноваций и количестве социальных предпринимателей, особенно актуальны для развивающихся экономик, в т. ч. для России.…”

Social Entrepreneurship

“…For McAnany (2012), social entrepreneurship has a great potential to contribute to: (i) social change; (ii) the development of local communities; (iii) the enhancement of economic growth; (iv) poverty reduction; and (v) environmental sustainability. Thus, social entrepreneurship can be seen as an important instrument of regional development and a way of attenuating social and economic differences among Portuguese regions, particularly when dealing with less developed regions and with low levels of economic dynamism.…”

“…Social entrepreneurship is a way of providing an answer to social problems based on searching for an innovative solution to well-known complex social problems, aiming to give them a sustainable answer. Various researchers have underlined the potential of social entrepreneurship in terms of employment creation (Alvord et al, 2004), social inclusion (Friedman & Desivilya, 2010) and sustainable regional development (Azmat, 2013;Borzaga & Galera, 2012;Friedman & Desivilya, 2010;Lambru, 2012;McAnany, 2012;Parente et al, 2012a;Quintão, 2004).…”