Social Entrepreneurship

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Social Entrepreneurship

• What does it mean and how useful is the concept?

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Idealisation

• too few men and women here in Britain - a third
  less than the proportion in the US - have started
  or grown a business or become self-employed and
  so it is time to remove the financial, cultural
  and other barriers to enterprise so that in
  Britain starting a business becomes the ambition
  not just of an elite few but of many the
  greatest constraint on the growth of Britain's
  productivity and prosperity today is now our
  failure to realise the educational and
  entrepreneurial potential of our own people.
• Gordon Brown, Mansion House speech 2002

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And Social Entrepreneurs?

• Social entrepreneurship is not a new phenomenon.
  Whilst it may represent a newly coined term, it
  is hardly a novel concept. Innovative individuals
  and enterprising groups have been addressing
  social issues for centuries, as is demonstrated
  by the activities of extraordinary public
  innovators such as Florence Nightingale, Susan B.
  Anthony, and Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the
  collective efforts of groups like the Rochdale
  Pioneers, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the National
  Association for the Advancement of Colored People

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A typical example of blurring

• In these examples, the individual or groups
  acted as catalysts challenging the status quo by
  identifying an apparently insoluble social
  problem and tackling it with tenacity and vision.
  Their outstanding leadership towards a social end
  and their ability to see opportunities where
  others saw only hurdles further single out these
  charismatic figures.
• (Nicholls, 2005 2).

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A critical view of entrepreneurship
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What do people really think?

• The entrepreneur as defined by British TV
  comedies a study in semiotics and iconography
  'understanding the entrepreneur as socially
  constructed'.
• Smith, R. (2006), Towards a More Mature
  Entrepreneurial Iconology, paper presented to
  the 29th ISBE conference in Cardiff, 31 Oct. to 2
  Nov.

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Arthur Daly as Flash Harry
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Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses
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Loadsamoney
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Chris the Crafty Cockney
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Arent they all crafty cockneys?

• What can we say about education and class?
• Popular image is associated with London
• Conflation between enterprise and criminality?
• Link between the icon of the entrepreneur and the
  barrow boy

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How useful is the management literature?
Burns, P. (2001), Entrepreneurship and Small
Business (Basingstoke Palgrave)
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• Attribute Manifestation (mainstream economy)
• Independence Individualism
• Achievement Profitability and longevity of
  business growth
• Profit drive Maximum financial return
• Risk-taking Borrowing money moving into new
• sectors
• Opportunism Identifying new sectors
• Innovation Exploring new technologies or
• management techniques
• Confidence Ability to go it alone sometimes
• against expert advice
• Energy Willingness to work long hours,
  travel widely
• Self-motivation Creating own job rather than
  seeking
• work through application
• Vision Forseeing future business
• developments

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• Attribute Manifestation (sustainable economy)
• Independence Insulation of community against
• destructive forces of globalisation
• Achievement Sustainability
• Profitability Sufficient surplus to ensure
• continuation of business activity
• Risk-taking Balancing job survival against
• innovation
• Opportunism Identifying new sectors
• Innovation Exploring new forms of organization
• structure
• Confidence Based on mutual support
• Energy Willingness to work long hours
• Self-motivation Based on mutual support
• Vision Foreseeing and envisioning
• environmental sustainability

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Williams, C. C. (2006), The Hidden Enterprise
Culture Entrepreneurship in the Underground
Economy (Cheltenham Edward Elgar), chap. 2.

• Three classic requirement of the entrepreneur
  are
• to prioritise the accumulation of money
• to spot opportunities
• to innovate.
• The inadequacy of the standard view is
  demonstrated by the need to develop
  sub-categories.

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Defining social entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurs are change agents in the economy.
  By serving new markets or creating new ways of
  doing things, they move the economy forward
  (Dees, 1998).
• Social entrepreneurship reaches the parts of
  society other policy initiatives do not reach,
  that social entrepreneurs are unsung heroes and
  alchemists with magical qualities who can build
  things from nothing (Dees, 2004).
• This is largely proselytisingand coming from US.
• Issue of ownership and control ignored

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US definition of Dees

• Focus of literature on individual characteristics
  of people involved in the social economy.
• Begins with market-based entrepreneurs who
  mobilize the resources of others to achieve
  their entrepreneurial objectives.
• The social entrepreneur can therefore be defined
  as someone who acts as a change agent in the
  social sector by
• Adopting a mission
• Pursuing new opportunities to achieve that
  mission
• Continually innovating, adapting and learning
• Avoiding limitations of current resources
• Being concerned with accountability to their
  clients and community

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Policy focus on development of social capital

• Provision of work and through such activity
  empowering people to build up their social
  capital
• Scottish Executive emphasises this role without
  exploring the definition or usage of the concept
• Social economy and social enterprise strategies
  are directed at providing products, services and
  employment to deprived regions and areas
• Supposed to assist in producing regional
  sustainability in weak development terms
  relating to economic growth and strong
  development terms in relation to social cohesion

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The entrepreneur as lone hero
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Is it an individual decision?

• A paper on the characteristics of the
  entrepreneurial personality (Littunen, 2000) that
  has, in its published electronic form, been
  downloaded more than any other in the Emerald
  system, begins by stating that Starting up a new
  firm is very much an individual decision, a
  conclusion which it is the central purpose of
  this paper to challenge

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Or iconic local champion?
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Associative entrepreneurship?

• Based on mutual values
• Involves the sharing of skills by groups of
  individuals to achieve the best outcomes for
  those in their group and the wider community
• Central role of ownership and control
• Particularly relevant in areas that have
  historically been dominated by nationalized
  industries and/or single employers, or where
  there has been a strong radical tradition?
• Prototypical example co-operatively-owned
  coal-mine Tower Colliery in the South Wales
  Valleys.

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Do Social Entrepreneurs wish to be identified by
this label?

• What do you tell people you do?
• Obviously, Im a mother! giggle I dont know
  really. Depends on my mood. I dont mention
  that Im married to a vet ever! because then
  they want to pull in the favours. If Im on my
  own, thats the last thing I mention. I just say
  I work for the credit union, you know. I dont
  like titles and things
• How do you feel about the term social
  entrepreneur?
• No, I dont see myself as an entrepreneur.
• Why not?
• I just dont! giggle I dont know, Id have to
  think about that.
• What springs to mind when you hear the term
  social entrepreneur?
• ummaking things up, making it a success, you
  know, out of nothing and then you make this big
  thing, and help people basically.

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Howorth, C., Parkinson, C. and Coupland, C.
(2006), Resisting the Identity of Social
Entrepreneur, paper presented to the 29th ISBE
conference in Cardiff, 31 Oct.

• There was a great deal of resistance to the label
  of social entrepreneur. Overall, only two
  responded positively to the label and they
  treated their public acceptance of it with some
  caution. Some of the participants avoided the
  word social in association with entrepreneur
  as if the two did not go together. The vehement
  rejection of the term social entrepreneur by over
  half the participants is notable. Explanations
  might include a greater affinity with the
  community collective and seeing entrepreneurs as
  individuals viewing entrepreneurs as heroic
  other people not associating with the popular
  myth of entrepreneurship. Alternative identities
  that emerged were around community activists,
  managers and caretakers.

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Questions to think about

• Is the label entrepreneur attractive or
  unattractive?
• Is the term social entrepreneur helpful or
  unhelpful to those actually out there, doing it?
• Is the icon and reputation of the entrepreneur
  limiting economic growth and/or social benefit?