Social Entrepreneurship

The phenomenon of Social Entrepreneurship refers to the application of an entrepreneurial process in order to achieve social goals. This adoption of traditional business principles has captured the fascination of social change activists around the world, and yet, a lack of understanding its characteristics such as value proposition, opportunity, innovation and the creation of value can be observed. At the same time, similar changes in the philanthropic sector are taking place, with the phenomenon of Venture Philanthropy pioneering a new model of financing social change by translating the conventional venture capital approach from the business world to the social sphere, turning philanthropists into social investors. These complementing phenomena show a new relation between the financing and executing side in the social sector and challenge traditional categories such as non-profit vs. for-profit by choosing hybrid organizational forms. As these changes advance, efforts towards the creation of a social capital market that build on these two phenomena can be observed in order to restructure the current system of financing social change, applying principles from the financial markets. These changes challenge the traditional dichotomy of social and economic value that defines our current understanding of capitalism.