This page is titled (Social) Enterprise because while most of the resources are on social enterprise, there are a few that are on enterprise alone.  The term “social enterprise” has many definitions, and interpreted broadly, encompasses a wide range of organizations.   There are many articles written on social enterprise, of which just a sampling is provided here.

I have suggested some questions below to start you off thinking about social enterprise as you browse through these pages and the related articles.  The questions start off narrow, but rapidly move on to larger issues.  The reason behind the focus on larger issues is to get you quickly thinking about the world of social enterprise beyond Villgro.

1.  One of the main elements of definitions of social enterprises are that they are enterprises with social objectives.  To what extent can existing entrepreneurs be encouraged to adopt social objectives by organizations like Villgro?  If we think of students as potential entrepreneurs, to what extent can the educational system encourage them to adopt social objectives?

2.  What is the Indian government’s rationale for promoting entrepreneurship?  Can the same rationale be extended to social entrepreneurship?  Are there certain kinds of social enterprises that the government is more likely to support than others?

3.  Can government departments be persuaded to procure goods from social enterprises, either for their own use or for further distribution?  What might be some effective strategies to do this?

4.  Several mapping exercises of social enterprises have been carried out, particularly in different regions in the U.K.  Mapping could also be used as a tool to see whether entrepreneurial activity is more concentrated in some ethnic communities than in others.  Once this is done, we could ask whether different ethnic communities adopt different entrepreneurial strategies.  What could we learn from this?

5.  Just as comparisons have been made of levels of entrepreneurship in different parts of the world, can we envision a study comparing levels of social entrepreneurship?  Where would you expect to find the highest levels?  The lowest?  Why?

6.  Where in the world do you think social entrepreneurship is most needed?  Least needed?  Why?

The Social Enterprise Ecosystem

What is an enterprise? Who is an entrepreneur? How do enterprises become successful?

All these questions are best researched through looking at individual examples of enterprises, or through looking at a series of examples as the basis for generalized definitions and theories.

An ecosystem can be defined as a community of organisms together with their physical environment, considered as an unit. Within this blog, we modify the term ecosystem to consider the community of enterprises, and their policy environment, as an unit.

Who?

“Who is an entrepreneur?”  When I ask myself this question, it feels as though I’m scanning a faceless crowd, looking for the entrepreneur.  To find the entrepreneur, it would help to know what his or her distinguishing features are.  Here are some questions to help you think about the distinguishing features of an entrepreneur.

1.  What kind of spirit and behavior are the defining characteristics of entrepreneurs?

2.  How do individuals become entrepreneurs?  Is it an inborn trait, or can it be learned?

3.  How do individuals become successful entrepreneurs?  What part of their success is rooted in personal temperament, in the development of particular kinds of knowledge, in the acquisition of special skills, in a certain amount of luck?

4.  What kinds of knowledge and skills are required to become a successful entrepreneur?  How can this knowledge and these skills be acquired?

5.  How does our conception of an entrepreneur change when we add the word “social” to it?

6.  Does the idea of “social” attach to the motivations of the entrepreneur, to the ultimate impact of his / her efforts, or some combination of the two?

7.  Do you think that social entrepreneurs will bring the kind of productivity gains to the development sector that commercial entrepreneurs have brought to the economic sector?  How?

8.  To what extent do you think social entrepreneurs really hold the potential to “transform the world?”

As you can see from the above questions, there are many avenues of research to explore in this topic.  Our collection of articles is small at the moment, but it will be added to in the near future.  Articles on this topic are tagged “entrepreneurs.”

What?

What is an enterprise?

There are 2 levels at which we can approach this question.   The first is at an abstract level, where we would focus on using definitions and theories to improve our understanding of enterprise.

The second level at which we can approach this question is empirical.  At an empirical or practical level, we would study a few examples of enterprises, or in this case specifically social enterprises, to better understand what social enterprises are like overall.