IA01 - Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition

Allison Wilkes

September 22, 2018

Professor Chung

IA01

Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition

I chose an article written by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This article focused on what it meant to be a “social entrepreneur” and the distinctions to be made between being a social entrepreneur, social activist, social service providers and just an entrepreneur. This article broke down what it means to be an entrepreneur, much like the book did in the chapter two reading. The article talks about the characteristics that make a person and entrepreneur and how they become successful in their tactics. The article lists opportunity sensing, out-of-the-box thinking, and determination as the three main characteristics that are required in an entrepreneur. Similar skills are also listed in the book as being the starting points for entrepreneurship, “innovation, running a business, and risk taking.” In the article it tells stories of famous entrepreneurs we know of today to relate back traits and meaning of being an entrepreneur. Talking about famous companies like FedEx and Apple. The entire article links back to the idea that both an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur are all trying to change the equilibrium of the market, referring back to the famous economist, Jean-Baptiste Say, who once described an entrepreneur as someone who “shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.”

The article then shifts to describe the social entrepreneur aspect and defining what it mean to be a social entrepreneur and how it differs from being a regular entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur starts with those same three characteristics as an entrepreneur, opportunity-sensing, out-of-the-box thinking, and determination. Entrepreneurs are driven by money, while social entrepreneurs are also looking for change and helping others. The article talks about that social entrepreneurs are not as concerned with the making of money and are instead hoping to transform a segment of the society or the society at large. There are three main components of being a social entrepreneur; they identify the unjust equilibrium or the part of the population that is suffering and cannot help itself on its own, they identify the opportunity to fix the unjust equilibrium, and they set off to forge a new, stable equilibrium that helps the suffering part of the society and helps to improve the society at large.

These two concepts were talked about in our book in chapter two and chapter four. The entrepreneurship definition and characteristics were stated in the book in chapter two. The social part of social entrepreneur is discussed in chapter four of our book when it talks about social responsibility in a way. However, what the exact topic focused on in the book is corporate social responsibility and what it means for a company to be socially responsible. Both our book and this article talk about what it means for companies and even entrepreneurs to add the the unjust equilibrium in the world by worsening a targeted population. The concept of what it means to be an entrepreneur and even what it means to be a social entrepreneur, without using that terminology, was discussed by the guest speaker we had on September 21, Rebecca Harris. In her presentations she cited the same traits that an entrepreneur must have that both the article and the book do. She also talked about the social aspect when she was referring to one of her own business endeavors, The Toledo Parent. She created this new outlet to help the parents in the area as in this time there was no internet access. Throughout her presentation she listed the same general traits and skills an entrepreneur must use to make their business successful as the article did.
My plan moving for the next individual assignments is to complete them ahead of time and begin working on the assignments well before the due date. I am planning on beginning to look for my role model now to be able to do my write up before the due date. For the Individual assignment three, I will begin to research a way to make a personal business plan and begin setting it up. I am beginning to go to networking event to create more professional contacts as well as collecting business cards from those networking events and the guest speakers we have in class. For the individual assignment five, I am taking notes for each of the guest speakers we have in class so that when the time comes I can compare them all to see which one I want to write about.


URL Link to Article:   https://ssir.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_the_case_for_definition

Works Cited 

Martin, R. L., & Osberg, S. (2007, Spring). Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition (SSIR). 

        Retrieved September 22, 2018, from 

        https://ssir.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_the_case_for_definition