Global Changemakers

What is really Social Entrepreneurship?

For the most part, my past blogs have been a platform to share my insight about Social Entrepreneurship, but today, I am writing to ask for YOUR insight. Social Entrepreneurship, a term under which this same group is named, is being thrown out quite often these days: in development seminars, in conferences, in blogs, in forums. But what is exactly Social Entrepreneurship? And what makes it different from the ‘conventional’ form of Entrepreneurship that we’re used to? I must say that even I am not sure about the answer.

Many people refer to it as the application of business concepts to social problems. But this brings up another and even more debatable question: can a social enterprise be for-profit as long as it addresses a social need? A friend of mine who worked both in business and in non-profit fields would like to believe that yes, Social Entrepreneurship can in fact seek profit. In other words, the core of this concept becomes the presence of a social mindset in the process of enterprising, while profit or not becomes a peripheral matter of choice. Personally, I haven’t settled on an opinion yet. On one hand, expanding the term to for-profit organizations makes room for reconceptualizing the business mindset and drawing entrepreneurs to try and solve problems that matter (for example, wouldn’t we want someone to invest in finding a cure for HIV even if his purpose was to make money out of it? At least we will have a cure). On the other hand, expanding the term might drain it from its original purpose and core element of service and selflessness. We’ve already seen how corporations use the CSO label to make more profits and look good, even if the money is in fact wasted on meaningless projects.

In any case, this is not an exact science, and we don’t need to have a specific definition for it, but I would really like to hear the opinion of some of you regarding this matter. What is Social Entrepreneurship to you?

- Jihad, Global Changemaker