Social entrepreneurship is fancy jargon, if I may say so myself. It is a new term in todayâs world. Some call it a buzz word, some call it a trend, and others with less positive outlook refer to social entrepreneurship as a fad. Upon knowing that I graduated with a Masterâs in Social Entrepreneurship, people often ask me to explain what social Entrepreneurship is. I am not the expert on the subject, but I want to use this post to try and explain. In trying to come up with a personal definition of social entrepreneurship, the academic in me started with researching the textbook definition of an entrepreneur. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an entrepreneur is âone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.â The term is very much related to the term enterprise, which in addition the standard economic or business organization meaning refers to âreadiness to engage in daring or difficult actionâ (Merriam-Webster). In light of these two definitions, I view social entrepreneurship as the creation and management of an organization that assumes the risk of uniquely meeting social needs. The term organization can encompass a wide variety of communities. In social entrepreneurship, the form or structure of the organization does not matter as much; the need of a social enterprise should dictate its form or structure. Whether or not structured as a for profit or a nonprofit, social enterprises should be sustainable, utilizing sound business skills. Its main emphasis should lie on the purpose, which is to uniquely meet social needs. In regular businesses and enterprises, profit is the bottom line; in social entrepreneurship, social impact is the bottom line. The Achillesâ heel of for profit social organizations might well lie in the possibility of losing focus. Rather than focusing on the social impact, profit might become a distraction that clouds theirâs judgment. On the other hand, nonprofit social organizations often fall prey to organizational harakiri. They have tunnel vision on the mission and, taking no heed to sound business decisions and strategy, drives themselves to organizational suicide. It does not have to be one evil over the other. Social entrepreneurship aims to maintain both sound business practices and social impact. Best of both worlds. I ended my definition of social entrepreneurship by stating that these organizations assume the risk of uniquely meeting social needs. Controversies have emerged concerning whether or not social entrepreneurship should be innovative. I believe that it does not have to be a completely original idea; some ideas have already been thought of, but might be lacking in execution. In addition to that, I believe that social enterprises must be unique to the intended community and the social need addressed. For example, a social enterprise aimed to help the poor in Indonesia will look and feel different compared to one aimed to help empower women in Africa. Over the weeks, I plan to write short pieces n different issues in the social entrepreneurship world along with profiling different social enterprises. For now, I would love to hear what your thoughts are on social entrepreneurship. If you are a social entrepreneur, Iâd like to hear what your enterprise is!
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