Transcript Document
Social Entrepreneurship
Roslyn Russell
RDU
Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is the activity of establishing new business
ventures to achieve social change. The business utilises creativity
and innovation to bring social, financial, service, educational or
other community benefits.
(Talbot, Tregilgas & Harrison, 2002)
Social enterprises are not charities or welfare agencies. They are
private businesses established by entrepreneurs with an emphasis
on human values rather than just profit. These businesses focus on
working with and enhancing the social capital within the
community by encouraging participation, inclusion and utilising a
bottom-up approach to achieve social change
Elements of Social Enterprise
Three core elements:
Created to provide benefits for a community
Creates opportunities so people can help themselves
as well as others
Utilises sound commercial business practices to
ensure its sustainability i.e. the business will
naturally uphold and encourage environmental
sustainability as well as ethical considerations
Characteristics of a Social Entrepreneur
Not bound by sector norms or traditions
Not confined by barriers that stand in the way of their
goals
Develop new models and pioneer new approaches to
enable them to overcome obstacles
Take innovative approaches to solve social issues
Transform communities through strategic partnerships
Social entrepreneurs
“… a path breaker with a powerful idea, who combines visionary and
real world problem-solving creativity, has a strong ethical fibre..”
“ ..combines street pragmatism with professional skills..”
“ they see opportunities where others only see empty buildings,
unemployable people and unvalued resources”
“..Radical thinking is what makes social entrepreneurs different from
simply ‘good’ people.”
“they make markets work for people, not the other way around, and
gain strength from a wide network of alliances”
“they can ‘boundary ride’ between the various political rhetoric and
social paradigms to enthuse all sectors of society”
Where do you find social
enterprises?
Social entrepreneurs find opportunity in most economic sectors.
The growth areas for social enterprises are identified as:
Environmental
Housing
Health and care
Information services
Public services
Financial services
Training and business development
Manufacturing
Food and agriculture
Global context
U.K. Community Action Network (CAN)
The Stanford Business School Social Entrepreneurship initiative
Canadian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI)
The Israeli Greenhouse for Social Entrepreneurship
International Institute of Social Entrepreneurship Management
(India)
Inter-American Development Bank
The Initiative on Social Enterprise – Harvard Business School
Australian Context
Social Entrepreneurship Network (SEN)
Social Ventures Australia (SVA)
Asia-Pacific Centre for Philanthropy and
Social Investments (Swinburne)
RMIT
Example: Ben and Jerry’s Ice-cream
Community Partnership Savings Accounts
A matched savings model designed to help people build
assets
Usually it involves two dollars matched for every dollar
saved
Account holders take money management and asset
training classes while saving for a specific goal
An 18 month Community Partnership Savings Accounts
Pilot will be run by the Brotherhood of St Laurence and
ANZ and will match savings specifically for educationrelated expenses.
Examples
In Canada there is a learn$ave program that has
established Individual Development Accounts
to promote self-sufficiency among low-income
Canadians
4,875 participants
10 locations
In USA there are approximately 250 IDA
programs that are showing success
Also UK and Singapore have similar programs
Australian Program
Commences in June 2003
Will include 300 participants
Three locations – inner city, outer
suburban and regional
Lower income participants
Specific goal – education expenses for
children
Research project
Conduct an evaluation program to run
concurrently with the pilot
Aims:
To ensure appropriateness of the program
To ensure effectiveness of the program
To ensure efficiency of the program
Stages
1. Secondary data analysis
Overseas IDA program
Australian context
2. Evaluation process
Assess individual-level change
Implementation analysis
Assess the effect on organisation
How?
Action research using qualitative
techniques
Individual interviews
Participant focus groups
Staff focus groups
Quantitative measurements using bank
data
Outcomes
Reports including:
Indication of individual-level change in
participant behaviour
Patterns of drop-out rates from the program
Perceptions of participants in the program
Perceptions of staff involved
Indication of individual-level change in staff
attitudes and learning
Outcomes (cont’d)
Intermediate reports on barriers to
maintaining participations
Identify patterns in drop-out rates