Social Entrepreneurship is a sub-group of Entrepreneurship.
A social entrepreneur still has the characteristics of an entrepreneur, such as innovative and driven, but often has different motives.
I see a social entrepreneur as someone who is not necessarily in creating new markets, but interested in helping to reform existing markets. This may be an innovative idea to help some sort of disadvantaged population.
An example which I thought of would be the (RED) campaign which helps to raise money for mothers+children who have contracted AIDS in Africa. Their strategy for marketing in so many places (cellphones, clothing, coffee) was developed by an entrepreneur, but with the motive of helping a disadvantaged community (AIDS).
The idea of social entrepreneurship is really interesting to me.
The first that comes to mind in the case of social entrepreneurship is probably MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). I think you definitely need to have all the same characteristics and personality that the profit-driven entrepreneur have to succeed at social entrepreneurship, and probably them some. You probably need to really have a vision, even more defined than simply a small-business owner, and you've got to have a determination so strong that you not only take risks but make some sacrifices, too, at least in the case of starting a venture for helping the disadvantaged. You might even call Ghandi, or Martin Luther King some of the great social entrepreneurs, but you don't have to be as big a name as them to do it. You could probably start with a church or community center or equivalent to start some social entrepreneurship.
ReplyDelete