Characteristics and Role of Social Entrepreneurs

7 Essential Characteristics of Social Entrepreneurs

1. Curiosity
Social entrepreneurs must nurture a sense of curiosity about people and the problems they
face. The best social entrepreneurs seek to truly understand the needs and desires of the people
they serve. Great social ventures often start through immersive market research, an empathy-
centric process through which social entrepreneurs gain knowledge in the field.
Example: The founders of Shakti Apparel launched their venture after working with villagers in
rural India and learning about their lifestyles.
2. Inspiration
In order to design effective solutions, social entrepreneurs must be inspired by the people
and problems they encounter. Inspiration motivates action and helps social entrepreneurs tackle
challenges that others shy away from addressing.
Example: When he learned that his blind friend had no way to tell time, the founder of Eone set
out on a mission to design an effective solution to his friend’s problem.
3. Resourcefulness
In the world of social entrepreneurship, key resources, such as human and financial capital,
can often be scarce. Successful social entrepreneurs know how to leverage the resources at their
disposal and develop innovative methods to overcome obstacles.
Example: When he needed capital, the founder of Paka Apparel held an Alpaca petting zoo at a
well-known restaurant/bar to raise early-stage funds for his venture.
4. Pragmatism
Changing the world takes time, effort, and experimentation. While visions for massive
social change may provide their inspiration, experienced social entrepreneurs know that they need
to take small steps in pursuit of their goals. Great social ventures are not born overnight!
Example: The founder of Be As You Wear is working to reform systems that put youth at risk by
taking small steps, such as performing small-group education interventions and selling hoodies to
fund her work.
5. Adaptability
Social entrepreneurs must remain open to solutions. This includes knowing when to pivot
and change their strategies if their initial methods do not succeed. Adaptability and flexibility are
integral in the development of early-stage social enterprises.
Example: Salty Girl initially was going to create a platform linking fisheries to chefs, but they
pivoted to selling sustainable, traceable fish directly to consumers.
6. Openness to Collaboration
While embarking on a quest to change the world may feel lonely, it is important to
remember that social entrepreneurship is a team sport, and other people are willing to help. Social
entrepreneurs need to stay open and attentive to potential partnership and collaboration
opportunities. In many cases, collaborative initiatives and joint-ventures can achieve
social/business goals much more effectively than solo endeavors.
Example: Refugee Investment Network partnered with Village Capital to offer an investment-
readiness tool designed for refugee entrepreneurs.
7. Persistance
Social entrepreneurs take on some of the most daunting challenges our society has to offer.
This often creates a recipe for early-stage failures. However, the successful social entrepreneurs
are the ones who persist past initial setbacks and persevere to deliver effective solutions.
Experienced social entrepreneurs know how to learn from failures, adjust their methods, and make
continual strategic improvements. Don’t give up if at first you don’t succeed!
Example: Kapamagogopa Incorporated (KI) overcomes obstacles to bring peace to communities
in the Philippines.
What are the roles of social entrepreneurship?
The role of a social entrepreneur may be split into three core themes: societal leadership,
strategic organizational management and personal leadership. Each of the three roles brings
unique challenges and considerations for the social business leader

S ocial enterprises are not easy businesses to run. The challenge of retaining financial

stability while utilizing commercial practices to actively develop social impact brings unique

leadership and management challenges.

The role of a social entrepreneur is a good starting point to explore the ins and outs of running a
social business. The challenge of retaining financial stability while utilizing commercial practices
to actively develop social impact brings unique leadership and management challenges. Numerous
researchers have explored the traits, models and theories that shed light on a social entrepreneur’s
role as a social business leader. On the one hand, social entrepreneurs should lead with vision and
guidance and constantly reiterate the importance of institutionalizing social value. On the other
hand, as the day-to-day running of a social enterprise is based on sound business management
principles, they have to master market competitiveness and risk-taking to ensure the commercial
viability of the business.
This contribution – which is the product of collaborative action research with a number of
stakeholders across the globe – aims to explore and address the complexity of leadership within a
social business environment, where creating social value is driven by market competitiveness and
the organization strives to survive through independent financial sustainability.
The role of a social entrepreneur may be split into three core themes: societal leadership,
strategic organizational management and personal leadership. Each of the three roles brings unique
challenges and considerations for the social business leader. The roles should not be seen
separately, but as a whole. A ‘good’ social entrepreneur therefore strives to combine practices and
personal qualities that address each role optimally.
1. Societal leadership
Societal leadership is concerned with the social entrepreneur’s core commitment to bringing
about socio-political change and how this commitment consequently shapes his or her
relationship with various social actors. A social entrepreneur can create a sense of shared
commitment and co-ownership by embedding the social objective within the hearts of relevant
social actors. By practising societal leadership, social entrepreneurs are able to foster active
citizen involvement and positively impact the rate and reach of their social vision. Societal
leadership is about the ability to co-create and the ability to share commitment by nurturing and
adopting various leadership styles including steward leadership, transformational leadership,
servant leadership and responsible leadership.1
2. Business management: translating vision into action
In a social business, a distinction may be made between the social entrepreneur’s role as a
mission-driven leader and his or her role at the strategic management level. The latter is about
the social entrepreneur’s responsibility to form business strategies that will uphold the
organization’s social vision. The importance of good leadership practice is a crucial element in
social business management. Vision-led strategies must be institutionalized in the culture and
structure of a social business to prevent the social business from drifting away from its social
mission. To achieve this, the emphasis needs to be placed on exploring and adapting skills and
traits as found within the theories of servant and steward leadership. It is important to emphasise
the social entrepreneur’s role as a leader who is able to constantly realign strategic choices made
at the commercial level with the organization’s social vision, while effectively utilizing its social
capital to this end.
3. Personal leadership: self-awareness and self-development
The social entrepreneur is the heart of a social business. Personal leadership, in this context, is
about the social entrepreneur’s ability to drive forward the social objective, advocate the cause,
with a people’s approach to doing business whilst simultaneously achieving and preserving
financial sustainability. It is crucially important that a social entrepreneur is visionary, self-aware
and able to learn and self-develop. A social entrepreneur should have change-making
competencies, including the ability to change him/herself.
1 Stewardship aims to integrate the value orientation of both leaders and society by identifying a
common goal of governance. Transformational leadership focuses on creating and fostering
community and stakeholder relations and may help social entrepreneurs tap into previously
unidentified resources. Servant leadership focuses on social transformation by constantly striving
to be sensitive to and reiterating the needs of all stakeholders. Finally, Responsible leadership
prescribes a more balanced and rational approach, where the needs of all parties are equally
important.