Cities are challenged by global competition, by demographic changes and by citizens representing a rich diversity of cultural backgrounds and histories. The question is how can cities respond to these challenges as globalisation changes the conditions for production under which innovation becomes the basis of productivity.
It requires a critical mass of creativity, talent, knowledge and the ability and skills to network and cooperate both locally and globally in order to create the power of innovation, which is key to fostering workplaces and social cohesion in the future. Cities need to find ways of activating resources. Culture as a resource can be creatively tapped to generate human and social capital. In this new economy, values such as social responsibility, solidarity and social cohesion will become just as important factors as the levels of wages and taxes for attracting a talented workforce. Whilst the most obvious location for intercultural exchange and innovation is in the high tech industry and academia appealing to highlyskilled and well-connected people, the field of social entrepreneurship also provides many opportunities for economic, social and cultural innovation.
Now published in more than twenty countries, this book has become the bible for social entrepreneurship-in which men and women around the world are finding innovative solutions to a wide variety of social and economic problems. Whether delivering solar energy to Brazilian villagers, expanding work opportunities for disabled people across India, creating a network of home-care agencies to serve poor people with AIDS in South Africa, or bridging the college-access gap in the United States, social entrepreneurs are pioneering problem-solving models that will reshape the 21st century. The book provides vivid profiles of many such individuals and what they have in common. The book is an In Search of Excellence for social initiatives, intertwining personal stories, anecdotes, and analysis. Readers will discover how one person can make an astonishing difference in the world.
The skilled social entrepreneur has the ability to get the most mission out of the resources at hand including traditional business techniques. The book gives tips on how successful social entrepreneurs: focus on community wants and need; match those with core competencies to provide the quality services; assess risk and gauge opportunity; develop new project ideas and test their feasibility; write a business plan; project finances in the plan; tap into new sources of funding; develop the idea of social entrepreneurship throughout the organization; make sure that mission, not money, is the bottom line.
Also included are the seven essential steps of the not-for-profit business development process, real-world case studies, sample business plans, and a self-assessment process to determine if your organization is ready for social entrepreneurism. In addition to entrepreneurs, middle managers, policy setters, volunteers, and a host of other important staff members will get value from the mission-beneficial information in this book.
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471362824.html
A hands-on resource that shows nonprofits how to adopt entrepreneurial behaviors and techniques. Written by the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field, Enterprising Nonprofits offers concise and engaging explanations of the most successful business tools being used by nonprofits today. With this book, you’ll learn how to use practical business techniques to dramatically improve the performance of your nonprofit.
The rising spirit of social entrepreneurship has created all kinds of new opportunities for nonprofit organizations. But at the same time, many are discovering more than their share of challenges as well. This essential book will help anyone in the field gain the necessary skills to meet these challenges. Written by the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field, Enterprising Nonprofits offers concise and engaging explanations of the most successful business tools being used by nonprofits today. The authors clearly describe all the concepts so you'll be able to embrace the methods of social enterprise for your organization. With this book, you'll learn how to use practical business techniques to dramatically improve the performance of your nonprofit.
Written for students and practitioners of social entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector, is about the opportunity and challenge of applying leadership skills and entrepreneurial talents creatively and appropriately to create social value. The objective of this book is to enable readers to develop an in depth understanding of the distinctive characteristics of the social enterprise context and organizations and to develop knowledge and tools that will enable them to pursue social entrepreneurship more strategically to achieve mission impact more efficiently, effectively, and sustainably. This unique inter-disciplinary casebook provides students, instructors and practitioners with detailed analysis, frameworks, and Harvard Business School case studies for achieving maximum impact through social entrepreneurship.
This article seeks to analyze the links between the re-emergence of a civil and solidarity-based economy to the evolution of new forms of public commitment and the changing structures of productive activities in France. It further argues for a theoretical perspective that provides an analytical framework for a more comprehensive approach to the empirical complexity of social economic considerations consisting of three economic spheres: the for-profit economy, the public sector economy and the generally locally based non-monetary reciprocity based economy.
This exploratory study on one social entrepreneur challenges existing knowledge on the intention formation process of entrepreneurship. Drawing from social and cognitive psychology, we adapt an intention-based model from entrepreneurship and translate it to social entrepreneurship. Building on our findings, we argue that social entrepreneurs - like traditional entrepreneurs - experience perceptions of feasibility and desirability, and a propensity to act. However, complementing research on traditional entrepreneurs, we suggest that, in a preceding stage, social entrepreneurs develop social sentiments. Furthermore, we identify willpower, support, and the construction of opportunity as important antecedents of perceptions of feasibility and desirability, and propensity to act.
This book aims to define what Social Entrepreneurship actually is and what it is not. The author adopts a novel approach to the social entrepreneurship phenomenon, considering it as a dynamic process created and managed by innovative social entrepreneurs striving to create new social values in the market and community at large.
Social Entrepreneurship is the first to stir up serious debate in the field by examining what researchers around the world have written about social entrepreneurship - and what should be next on the agenda. It offers a selection of the best papers presented at the inaugural International Social Entrepreneurship Research Conference in Barcelona, 2005 and contains contributions from scholars in Europe, North America and South America. The breadth of opinion is important as social entrepreneurship is a global phenomenon.
Social enterprises tackle a wide range of social and environmental issues and operate in all parts of the economy. By using business solutions to achieve public good, the Government believes that social enterprises have a distinct and valuable role to play in helping create a strong, sustainable and socially inclusive economy. The aim of this strategy is to provide a more enabling environment, to help social enterprises become better businesses, and ensure that their value becomes better understood. The strategy identifies the issues which directly contribute to the success of the social enterprise sector; and, where necessary, seeks to remove the barriers that are preventing its growth and development.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/third_sector/assets/se_strategy_2002.pdf
The paper outlines a perspective on social entrepreneurship that is based on a Schumpeterian view of entrepreneurship as the creation of new combinations of resources, and focuses on the nature of actors engaging in the pursuit, and the nature of resources mobilized. So as to highlight less familiar aspects of social entrepreneurship, analysis is primarily illustrated by applications of a resource-based approach to the study of grassroots enterprising in Sweden. The presentation proceeds from rudimentary cases (that are organized around a single process of resource conversion) to more complex ones. Social entrepreneurship is viewed as a category of entrepreneurship that primarily (1) is engaged in by collective actors, and (2) involves, in a central role in the undertaking’s resource mix, socially embedded resources. Social entrepreneurship involves the tapping of socially embedded resources and their conversion into (market-) convertible resources, and vice-versa. In doing so, it spans the boundaries between
different property-rights regimes that define resources and their utilization. To ensure the undertaking’s (or enterprise’s) survival over time, it would also be expected to contribute to the replenishment of such resources, reconverting market resources into social capital, and reproducing the context that makes such transactions possible.
The book offers the most comprehensive overview to date of scholarly research on the topic: examines the challenges of defining social entrepreneurship, reviews his own and others’ past claims and assumptions about the phenomenon, and appeals for comparative analysis of successful and failed attempts at social change through entrepreneurial activity. The approach involves a combination of literature review and original research.
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