What is Social Entrepreneurship?

One of our first classes was a theoretical introduction to the emerging field of social entrepreneurship, to get a better understanding of its history, political context and content. One of the questions people are still trying to answer is around the boundaries of the field. According to the article by Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation and Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review earlier this year, a narrow definition is important to keep the field effective and living up to its promises. Others argue that this unduly limits the field and the sample size for any quantitative studies of the impact of social entrepreneurs.

In our class, an animated discussion took place over the distinction between social entrepreneurship and social activism. Who is changing the world in what ways? Martin and Osberg argue that social activists are not social entrepreneurs because rather than taking direct action, they are getting others to act. The authors do allow for hybrid cases such as fair trade (their example is the Rugmark Foundation) that blur the boundaries between both areas.

One student suggested that social activists might be the ones impacting the system responsible for the roots of poverty more directly than social entrepreneurs, who are sometimes only addressing symptoms of the disease. We will have much more to say about this topic on October 10, when we will be discussing the potentials and limits of market-based models to bring about social change, with a high-powered panel of speakers.

In the end, we came up with a number of criterias that seem to be apply to all social entrepreneurs and their endeavours: committed, passionate, determined and resourceful people changing their own world through sustainable and scaleable programs that aim to change problems on a large scale.