Social Entrepreneur And Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship: Social entrepreneurship can be interpreted as measure to apply practical, innovative and sustainable approaches to benefit the society as a whole. The measure would give adequate importance to the down trodden and sections of the society that are marginalized. It can be looked at as an approach to solve economic and social problems which cuts across sectors and disciplines. This approach that a social entrepreneur takes, emerge to be distinct and this sets himself apart from the crowd of other entrepreneurs. Such entrepreneurs possess an innate capability to strongly pursue an identified opportunity and turn it into a favourable outcome for the society. They have a driving passion to make to make it happen and in the

At the same time the ability to use the newly found approaches and its impact is also crucial. The difference between routine entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs is the way they define and articulate success. They measure success in different ways. For regular entrepreneurs financial success and profits make up success. Whereas for social entrepreneurs the social impact that they bring about constitute success. Quantifying the impact in the case of social entrepreneurship is difficult as it is abstract and it varies across ventures and hence is not comparable easily. The definition and measurement of outcomes lacks clarity because there are competing interests among various communities. The goals that a social entrepreneur sets for himself does not measure either the optimised use of resources allocated or the overall net impact created. The sense of happiness or joy that is created for the people of the society is intangible and hence accurate measurement is infeasible. In reality taking up such challenges and fulfilling it is an arduous task and needs a great deal of unwavering belief in one’s

There are two types of value; one is economic and the other social. Economic value is more quantifiable whereas on the other hand measuring social value is difficult. There are many forms of social value and there is no standardized way of comparing them. Companies have lately been promising the triple bottom line approach. This is an approach which creates economic, environmental and social value. Can social value be looked at as a benefit to the society or an improvement that has taken place in the society? The answer is a big ‘NO’. The reason is even technology can be termed as an improvement for the society but what value has it created? Can everyone have access to it? Can everyone afford it? NO. Hence such benefits and advancements cannot be said to create social value. Challenging the status quo and creating something new is when social value is really created. Some instances of social value creation can be the increase in the literacy rate in a region, increase in the life expectancy rate by improving health care, reduction in the number of infant deaths, reduction of the number of people below the poverty line etc. The commonality among the above stated instances is that there is value creation in the way of living and the status of the people. Who should be the focus for creating value? How do we identify our target group? When a particular section of the