Understanding Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Review

Two individuals, David Bornstein and Susan Davis, two pillars of social entrepreneurship who are very passionate about social innovation, have teamed up to write “Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know.” It is a book published by the Oxford University Press that aims to provide a deep understanding of what social entrepreneurship really is. More than that, it seeks to let the readers realize its importance in the global landscape. This paper aims to summarize the major points and give a critical review and learning insights. Since the book is divided into three major parts, namely (1) Defining Social Entrepreneurship, (2) Challenges of Causing Change, and (3) Envisioning an Innovating Society, the paper will follow this flow of

In order to fully understand its meaning, one would have to read different books and journals about it.

In our Social Entrepreneurship class, we have discussed the history of social entrepreneurship wherein we focused on the works of Muhammad Yunus, Susan Anthoy, Maria Montessori, Florence Nightingale, and even Tony Meloto and Sister Mary Medalla. However, I’ve learned in the book that social entrepreneurship has existed for a very long time already, but it wasn’t recognized as such yet. The author traces back the works of St. Francis and Mahatma Gandhi, but it is not until a century ago that private sectors tapped on social change for their businesses – thus the term “social

This can be very much related to Muhammad Yunus’ book, “Building Social Business” where the author differentiated social business from corporate social responsibility, charity, foundations, among others. As a matter of fact, the examples discussed in this book include Grameen Bank and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which can be attributed to Yunus. I think it’s great to see the perspectives of different authors on what social entrepreneurship really is, and this book, “Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know” is a good primer in the field of social entrepreneurship because it deconstructs how people see social entrepreneurship only as a humanitarian action – it actually should be a feasible business model. For those who do not have an idea or a background of what social entrepreneurship is, I think reading the first chapter of this book will help them get a good grasp of what it