Concept of social entrepreneurship

“Understanding the concept of social entrepreneurship will be of value in whichever career path I choose”

As the concept of entrepreneurship becoming important sources in economic fields, many existing businesses have been trying to implement that concept onto their own running business.

It is not simple to define or decided ‘entrepreneurship’ as only one set word or concept, because it has wide range of meaning and is the method that contains complex mixture of fundamental economic principle. In addition to that, when the concept is applied in certain industry it could be developed in many different ways depending upon which industries are targeted. Finally, the misunderstanding of implementing that entrepreneurship concept may lead the outcome that entrepreneur planed it in the process to unexpected situation, could be negative or coincidently positive for them.

The concept of entrepreneurship has been studied for many years and it was illustrated by the classic theory of development worked by author named Benjamin Higgins;

By entrepreneurship is meant the function of seeing investment and production opportunities: organizing an enterprise to undertake a new production process; raising capital, hiring labor, arranging for a supply of raw materials, finding a site, and combining these factors of production into a going concern; introducing new techniques and commodities, discovering new sources of natural resources; and selecting top managers for day-to-day operation (1997 ,228p)

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In putting another word simply, entrepreneurship basically means to start companies and organizations based on the findings of the entrepreneur of certain niches in the marketplace, and willing to assume the risks of a business to take significant opportunities for success.

Moreover, entrepreneurs also create their own niches for the products or services they want the company to produce. (Hodgetts R.M, 2004)

It is not surprised anymore hearing the term of entrepreneurship in the success stories in the real many different type of business industry. That is, it is just part of example that how entrepreneurship is important concept should be concerned to success, besides it is required to understanding the true concept of this topic.

Entrepreneurship could be classified by under 5 categories in order to clarify that how actual processes which the entrepreneurship contains is working in the certain business; Entrepreneur traits, creativity, innovation, business planning and growth management.

These elements can be representing the segments of characteristic of entrepreneur. In Entrepreneurial creativity part, it is required to have different view of perception and thinking of something and a paradigm shift in order to create new ideas.

There 4 critical processes to get the concept of innovation can be classified as invention, extension, duplication and synthesis. Strategic planning is the key sources that to access the entrepreneur’s position through internal/external factors then identify these factors to implement a strategy. Finally, in the management, it is required that identify what size of company will be through, the capability of which how direct control the company is afforded and how entrepreneurial spirit can be retained in a growing business.( Bailey, J. 2003)

Once entrepreneur concept is cleared, to move on to a ‘Social entrepreneur’ is next step. What is a social entrepreneur?

They act similar to entrepreneur does, such as facing risks, inspiration and creativity, in order to take hidden or uncovered significant opportunities.

What the social entrepreneur seeks for value in the certain market is the changeable factors that would result positive effect on disadvantaged communities, ultimately, society at large. (Martin.R,2009)

It will be given some particular examples about how entrepreneur have been successfully in implementing the concept of entrepreneurship into real-world business industry. That would be able to help clear understanding then, furthermore developing the ideas of fundamental business principle.

There is the national food business named Food Connect, aim is to supply local, sustainably produced food tothe community in South East Queensland. They are creating a new, more equitableway of distributing local produce in a socially responsible way. The seasonal produce comes from local farmers livingwithin a five hour radius of Brisbane who are paid afair price for their hard work andwho are encouraged to farm using the most sustainable methods possible.Our subscribers know where their food comes from and are invited to see for themselves on regular farm tours. Moreover, there are as an entrepreneurial way of which they run the business practices are markedly different from thosein other corporateorganizations:

• Our staff presents educational talks and seminars to the general public about food issues.
• Weorganize regular farm tours and other eventsfor our subscribers.
• Individuals cannot profit from Food Connect, except in terms of earning a fair wage for fair work.
• We provide, when feasible, opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in the daily life of the Homestead (our headquarters).
• Staffs have a major say in the running of Food Connect, particularly at our staff review days which are held every three months.
• We are environmentally aware in the Homestead, recycling everything possible. We even have our own worm farm for food scraps. (Food Connect,2008,story of food connect)

As it describe at above, the Food Connect company has faced some niches as in terms of entrepreneur point of view that the other competitors does not challenge it due to failure of changes, which briefly are;

creating the new way of satisfying the local distribution channels and to guarantee providing the best quality products with reasonable price for everyone, not only customer but also employee. As the results, the company could have had strong faith from consumers due to finding out risky factors to run the business according to their created entrepreneurial processes and they made huge changes after implementing it into real business.

Muhammad Yunus, he is the one that begin offering microloans model to the indigent Bangladesh in 1976. How the microloans work was that loaned money to the people was small adequate amount of money that they were able to take out the loan. As the result, he could have helped the people to become self-employed. According to this case, it can be recognized that entrepreneur also can take the role of a leader, not only government, which to make a social change or movement that supporting opportunities and benefit to the people in certain categories. The achievement that he has contributed to the society is not only for gaining profit himself but also involving more people having the beneficial opportunities.

Another example can be found out in India.

Social entrepreneur Bunker Roy who built the Barefoot College in India to educate uneducated people such as illiterate and semiliterate, whose lose the opportunity of education due to social situations. There are many successful achievements the college has develop and improve the level of Indian society, for instances, teachers, workers and architects have installed and maintain solar-electrification systems that about 100,000 people in over 500 villages could have received the benefits by the college.

The last example will be Ann Cotton, who made a effort of the right for female education(Campaign for Female Education : Camfed) in Africa. The launched programs by Camfed, which is providing opportunities of having education for whose cannot afford to pay school fee or join a school throughout awarding a scholarship, could have supported many numbers of young girls, approximate 700,000 students, in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania in the educational sector. Some of graduated students returned to this community as leaders and over 5,000 started their own business.

In terms of business point of view, it can be seen entrepreneurs as only a pragmatist because they are the people who born to seek for success and benefits in the business.

However, that is just general ultimate purpose of entrepreneurs. The points according to examples are the process how and ways they achieve to drive the business successful. A common denominator of among entrepreneurs in these examples is that they are not afraid of facing current and potential risks to make changes. In addition, the social entrepreneurs have emphasis on the processes of creating a new idea throughout inspiration, creativity, courage in order to reach the final goal that ensure that everyone have social benefits and opportunities, called a new equilibrium.(Social Enterpreneur,2009)