The purpose of this essay is to explore the relevance and impact of social entrepreneurship

with the use of organizational examples

It is vital to first define what is entrepreneurship, then further define the ‘social’ in the social
entrepreneurship, and hence define social entrepreneurship together to get a better understanding
(Wee, Williams &Teck 2005). An entrepreneur is some someone who creates new products or
services, finds a new market or develops a new production process in an innovative way, whose
main aim is to grow and develop their business for themselves (Lysons, Kickul & Jill 2012). The
word social is derived from socialis – a Latin word that means an ‘associate or companion’. The
word put forwards the idea of an organization of people that are put together in a group who live
and carry out their work cooperatively in a society or community (Lysons, Kickul & Jill 2012).
Social entrepreneurship is a complicated framework that involves expressing entrepreneurial
behavior to accomplish the social aim or target, the competence and intelligence to observe and
pinpoint social opportunities that add value to the society and the vital style of risk-taking,
innovativeness and dedication (Lysons, Kickul & Jill 2012).

In today’s time, all business environments are in a position of undergoing constant change due to
the emergence of social issues on a global level. Businesses are changing from traditional style of
organizations to the modern ones, for example from an entrepreneur to a social entrepreneur.
Organization make amendments to their mission, legal form, structure and legal forms for many
reasons. Firstly, they would want to adapt to a change to be able to comply with their mission in a
unique and innovative context. Secondly, they may want to change because their mission has
changed or they may change to adapt to the business environment and its advances (Young, D., &
Kim, C. 2015) (Luke, B., & Chu, V. 2013). The view of business and the society that it is the
responsibility of the people of the society to keep themselves safe from the externalities of business
activities has been changing to a growing interest in sustainable businesses and practices, that the
society and economy are linked together closely. These social issues are opportunities for the social
entrepreneurs to undertake with the risk it comes with, in an innovative way to benefit the society
and themselves (Jovanovic, Z. 2015). Common examples of these social issues include
unemployment and poverty.

The changes in nature of business and the increasing demand for sustainable business practices
creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to innovate and create solutions in the form of new
developments of productions. Here the role of the social entrepreneurs is to innovate and create in
such a way that benefits the society, solves the issue of concern by reducing the negative
externalities present in the economy, and in the process of doing so generate some profit. A very
good example of this would be Arunachalam Muruganantham’s Jaya Shree industries and Benny
Se Teo’s Eighteen Chefs.

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 In India about 88 % of women use newspapers, ashes, dried leaves and sand too during their
menstruation days. Because of these unhygienic practices 70 % and more suffer from problems of
infection in the reproductive tract and associated cancer risk. This as a result causes girls to miss
about 5 days of school each month and about 23 % of them dropping out from school when their
menstruation begins. Arunachalam Muruganantham receiver of the Presidential Award for
Innovation is the “single-handed” creator of the machine that makes access to sanitary napkin easy
and affordable. He started Jayshree Industries with the social mission to make people aware about
and promote the health of rural and poor women. Until now napkins were being produced on the
macro model and then distributed across the country contributing to a high transportation cost. With
Murugananthams’ creation the production is localized and reduced transportation cost. His
sustainable model is a success as it has sustained against companies like Johnson & Johnson for 5
years. His main aim from this social venture is to create awareness about female hygiene among the
less-privileged women and men of the society. By installing 100,000 units of his machine 1 million
women can be employed regardless of whether they are educated or not. He wants these women to
live a life with dignity (Venugopal, V., & Abhi, S. 2013).

Providing employment to those who have been ex-offender not only gives those people another
chance at life but also creates employment opportunities for them as they are unable to find jobs
for themselves because of being an ex-offender. Eighteen Chefs does the same. It recruits people
who have been ex-offenders and are unable to find jobs. The founder of Eighteen Chefs, Chef
Benny Se Teo is an ex-offender and a former drug addict who was unable to find a job. His
restaurant now is a profitable social enterprise that has a monthly revenue of more than $750,000.
According to him, he has never faced problems with getting staff, because of the social stigma of
hiring ex-offenders. Benny, like a social entrepreneur has been using this negative externality in
the economy to make the society and the economy better. Due to competition in the market and
the fading stigma of hiring ex-offenders resulted in his staff being poached away. However, as the
working environment and the pay at eighteen chefs was better than those of the competitors, the
staff returned (Huang Lijie 2014)

From both the real-life examples above it is seen that both are working toward a social aim to
benefit the society. Both are helping with issue of unemployment caused by either not being
educated or having a criminal record. The activities of both the social entrepreneurs are having a
positive impact on the society.

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 Hawthorne - Human Relations Theory can be observed in both the cases. The Hawthorne
Studies was conducted by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger in the year 1920 along with the
workers of the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company. It is a part of study on socio-
psychological areas of human behavior in an organization. In the study, it was found that the
human relations with the peer group and management had a significant and positive impact on
improvement in output observed in the first four experiments (Jung, C., & Lee, S. 2015). Benny
makes the working environment such that people return to work with him and Muruganantham
makes an environment that his social venture has survived for 5 years against a branded and
company like Johnson & Johnson.

In this essay, social entrepreneurship was defined and was broken down to get a better
understanding of the term. The emergence of social issues and changing nature of business
environments was discussed. The importance and impact of social entrepreneurship was covered
with the use of real life examples and how it impacted the contemporary context.

The issue with social entrepreneurship is that it has too many terms and definitions. This makes
it difficult to measure the accurate impact of entrepreneurial activities. Social enterprises have
different rules and legal formalities in each country. These factors make it difficult to compare
international and national social enterprises (Mohammad Reeza Noruzi 2004). However, Social
entrepreneurship creates unique opportunities, challenges. The field continues to develop and it will
be interesting to see how social entrepreneurs make use of resources to make innovative solutions to
address the social issues (Lysons, Kickul & Jill 2012).

WORD COUNT: 1240 words

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REFERENCES
Wee L.T, Wiliam J & Teck M.T. (2005) Defining the ‘Social’ in ‘Social Entrepreneurship’: Altruism
and Entrepreneurship. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 1. doi:353–365.
10.1007/s11365-005-2600-x

Kickul, J., Lyons, Thomas S, & EBooks Corporation. (2012). Understanding social entrepreneurship,
the relentless pursuit of mission in an ever-changing world. New York: Routledge.

Young, D., & Kim, C. (2015). Can social enterprises remain sustainable and mission-focused?
Applying resiliency theory. Social Enterprise Journal, 11(3), 233-259. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-02-2015-0005

Luke, B., & Chu, V. (2013). Social enterprise versus social entrepreneurship: An examination of the
‘why’ and ‘how’ in pursuing social change. International Small Business Journal, 31(7), 764-784. doi:
10.1177/0266242612462598

Jovanovic, Z. (2015). Management and changes in business environment. Ekonomika, 61(2), 143-
151. doi: 10.5937/ekonomika1502143J

Venugopal, V., & Abhi, S. (2013). A new white revolution: Case study of a social entrepreneur. South
Asian Journal of Management, 20(4), 144-152. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/docview/1519059061?accountid=12528

Strait Times. APR 14, 2014, 6:28 PM SGT. Huang Lijie. Former drug addict cooking up social
change. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/food/former-drug-addict-cooking-up-
social-change

Jung, C., & Lee, S. (2015). The Hawthorne Studies Revisited. Administration & Society, 47(5), 507-
531. doi: 10.1177/0095399712459731

Mohammad Reeza Noruzi(2004) “A Note on Social Entrepreneurship: Scopes and Objectives”

Retrieved from http://www.ipedr.com/vol12/55-C130.pdf

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