Discovering and Creating

Social Entrepreneurial
Opportunities
Prepared by: Ethel H. Dicdican, DBA
 Learning Objectives:

1. Definition of opportunity
2. Sources of Social Entrepreneurial Opportunity
3. Differentiate social entrepreneurship from commercial
entrepreneurship
4. SE opportunity recognition process: generation &
assessment
What is an Opportunity?
Opportunity
• An opportunity is the possibility of introducing a new
product to the market for a profit.
• An opportunity is a situation in which entrepreneurs
envision or create new means and ends frameworks.
• An opportunity is an entrepreneur’s perception of a
feasible means to obtain or achieve benefits.
• An opportunity is an entrepreneur’s ability to create a
solution to a problem.
• An opportunity is the possibility to serve customers
differently and better.
 Philosophical View of
Entrepreneurial Opportunity
Discovery View
 Imperfection in a market or industry.
 Situation where the entrepreneurial
process begin with the recognition of
an opportunity.
 Emphasizes the pursuit of
opportunities regardless of resources
Creation View
 Opportunities would not exist
without the entrepreneur’s
actions.
 Situation where a sense making
process between entrepreneurs
and their contexts leads to the
formation of an opportunity.
 Focuses on what can be done with
what is currently under control.
 Discovery View Creation View

Like mountains standing they act , and observe how consumers

somewhere waiting to be climbed and markets respond to their actions.
 Definitions of Social
Entrepreneurial Opportunity
Definition Source/s
The desired future state that is Austin, Stevenson, & Wei – Skillern
different from the present and (2006)
the belief that the
achievement of that state is
possible.
An opportunity that has Guclu, Dees, & Anderson (2002)
sufficient potential for positive
social impact to justify the
investment of time, energy
and money required to pursue
it seriously.
Definition Source/s
A feasible situation that Clarkin, Deardurff & Gallagher
exploits market inefficiencies (2012)
and provides an innovative
product or service that creates
social value in a less than
saturated market.
A market opportunity that Monllor (2010)
when exploited, will allow the
entrepreneur(s) to create
enhanced social value.
 Types of Innovative opportunities

• Creating a new improved product, service or program

• Introducing a new or improved strategy or method of
operating.
• Reaching a new market, serving an unmet need.
• Tapping into a new source of supply/ labor
• Establishing a new industrial or organizational structure
• Framing new terms of engagement
• Developing new funding structures.
 How are Social Entrepreneurial
Opportunities different?

Focus Context
• Social value rather • Embedded in local
than making profit context.

Stakeholders
• Involves wide array
of stakeholders
 How are Social Entrepreneurial
Discovered or Created?

Social Entrepreneur Develop that idea

generates a into an attractive
promising idea. opportunity.
 Phase Two:
Opportunity
• Social Needs Assessment

• Social Assets
• Pattern
Recognition
Phase One: Idea
Opportunity
Generation
PHASE ONE: IDEA GENERATION

Social Needs
- The GAPs between socially desirable conditions and
the existing reality.
- Open up new possibilities and inspire the development
of promising new ideas.
- Unmet demand alone, does not form a viable
opportunity unless social entrepreneur finds an
innovative and feasible way to meet the demand.
PHASE ONE: IDEA GENERATION

Social Assets
- understanding of the scope and level of tangible
and intangible assets in a community is key to
developing promising idea that aim at addressing
social needs.
Pattern Recognition
- Entrepreneurs notice various events in the external
world (such as changes in technology, economic,
political, social and demographic conditions).
- New business opportunities are identified when
entrepreneurs using relevant cognitive frameworks,
“ connect the dots” between seemingly unrelated
events or trends and then detect patterns in these
connection suggestive of new products and
services.
External Environment

• includes factor that affect a social venture and

cannot be controlled. If these factors pose a risk to
the venture, they must be mitigated.
• All businesses are affected positively and/or
negatively by their external environment.
• Lack of transportation
• Lack of communication infrastructure
• Lack of banking or other financial systems
• Complicated tax or business regulation laws and etc.
A. External Environment
• Economic Environment
• Legal/ Regulatory Environment
• Technology & ICT Environment
• Community/ Cultural Environment
• Natural Environment
B. Transactional Environment
- How business transactions take place
C. Internal Environment
Economic Environment

• Consists of organizations, infrastructure and ways

of doing business.
Organizations: potential suppliers, partners,
competitors, customers
Infrastructure: physical elements such as roads,
energy, telecommunication systems and distribution
network for moving goods and service efficiently.
Ways of doing business: unique financial methods,
accounting and financial reporting system, taxation
 Legal/ Regulatory Systems

• Regulation for ownership and transfer of property,

intellectual property rights and laws ,contracts or
other methods of documenting business
agreement and regulating business transactions
and processes for fairly implementing, enforcing,
and changing laws and regulations that affect
business conduct.
• Under-developed legal structure
• Inability to enforce existing laws
 Technology and the ICT Environment

• Includes computer, network communication and

media technologies.
• Affects communication with clients (customers,
beneficiaries and partners), marketing, business
transaction processing and supply chain
management.
• Opportunities to reduce transactional costs,
eliminate middlemen, reach target market and
simplify supply chains.
Community/ Cultural Environment

• Consists of social norms and the belief systems of

various groups.
• Community and cultural context must be taken into
account in social business (i.e women
empowerment, safety and threat of physical
violence)
 The Natural Environment

• The elements of the natural environment often

create motivations for – or amplify the need for a
social business.
• Frequent Floods and Hurricane
• Air and water pollution
• Influence the cost of doing business and methods
of accessing beneficiaries.
Factors that contributes to pattern recognition:

Alertness
Active Information • A potential entrepreneur needs to be
alert to market demands and actively
Search seek ways to connect his/ her skills and
resources to fulfill that needs.

Prior Experience Social Networks

• Prior experience or
knowledge contributes
to pattern recognition.
• People who maintain
numerous, diverse social
relationship are more
likely to generate new
ideas and opportunities.
 PHASE TWO: OPPORTUNITY
ASSESSMENT

• Entrepreneur recognized opportunities to judge

their attractiveness for exploitation.
• Model for the assessment of social entrepreneurial
opportunities ( Jerry Kitzi)
• Social Value Potential
• Market Potential
• Sustainability Potential
Criteria in assessing opportunities in social
entrepreneurship:
Pervasiveness
- Pervasiveness of an opportunity refers to the extent
to which the social need that opportunity aims to
address is widely salient.
Relevance
- Match between the opportunity’s salience to the
entrepreneur and his or her personal experiences,
expertise, skills, resources and demographics.
Accessibility
- Refers to the level of perceived difficulty in
addressing a social need through traditional welfare
mechanisms.
Radicalness
- Refers to the extent to which a major innovation or
social change is necessary to address a particular
problem.
In this chapter, we discussed the process by
which social entrepreneurs discover or create
opportunities. A process model for
opportunity assessment is also presented.
References:
• Carlson, Eric. Koch, James. (2018). Building a Successful
Social Venture. California: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc
• Guo, Chao and Bielefeld, Wolfgang. (2014), Social
Entrepreneurship: An Evidence-Based Approach to Creating
Social Value. California, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.