Question

Social Entrepreneurship

Discuss three ways that large organizations are increasingly engaging in social Entrepreneurship and the importance of stakeholder relationships in this effort.
2. Describe the concept of Third Sector innovation and reflect on the motive of non-profit entrepreneurial organizations to service these social needs. Next explain how the concept of uneven global distribution of innovation influences this sector. Provide examples to support your rationale.

Answer 1

1. 3 ways of engagement of large organizations in social entrepreneurship.

(a) Skills partnership - In this initiative, the professionals from the organization volunteer to guide, mentor and train the social entrepreneurs through their experience. this association can be short term, on project basis or long term partnership basis. This provides valuable lessons and learning experience to both parties, on organisational and individual level in addition to the strategic business advantage.

(b) Incubation, investment and corporate social ventures - In this category, the large corporations help the social entrepreneurs to develop their ideas, implement it to the venture without being exposed to the risks, as it is covered by the large firm through an investment. In addition to risk coverage, the entrepreneurs also benefit from the subject matter expertise and business skills from the industry people. The large corporation may use this model to create innovative products and services which it might be interested in exploring in future.

(c) Supply chain partnership - The large corporation partner with social entrepreneurs as buyer - seller relationship, where the firms extend financial support, skill set and know how, infrastructure and resources to co benefit from the deep customer insights and social reach of the entrepreneurial venture to create a sustainable joint value chain, in which the products of venture are bought back by the large firm. In this model, both parties benefit from each others' expertise by creating livelihood for many and gaining social value.

2.Not-for-profit organizations, charities and voluntary organizations are collectively referred to as the third sector.The innovation in the third sector means the use of technology, novel concepts and path breaking innovative techniques to increase efficiency, outreach and result oriented approach which ultimately results in positive social outcomes. The non profit entrepreneurial organization are the passionate efforts to address one or more of the social issues with entrepreneurial zeal, efficiency and result orientation to achieve sustainability, with financial gains pooled back to augment the size of venture, with a motive to address the issues with higher intensity.

Innovation is not unifrom throughout the globe. It depends upon the penetration of information, skill sets and availability of resources to conceptualise the innovation, integrate the components of information into an efficient package and apply it to the situation to make it meaningful, Uneven distribution of innovation often affects the agility with which the ventures are taken up, progress and create ultimate impact. For an example, a social venture in a developed country like Norway and Sweden is likely to be more innovative and outcome oriented owing to availability of skill, resources, techniques and access to the information in comparison to a country of sub saharan Africa where these elements are scarce.