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Theory of social enterprise
A study of challenges faced by social enterprises
A study of challenges faced by social enterprises
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Social enterprises have been around ever since the 1840s. Since then, social enterprises has spread throughout the whole world, spreading the idea of doing business with a social cause to others. Within these 200 years, what exactly is the role played by social enterprises? Is it to be a business that helps others or to be a change maker? In this essay, we will focus on the roles that social enterprises play in society. Drawing examples from both past and present social enterprises, and showing how throughout the years, the roles of social enterprises has remained consistent to its cause.
This essay will cover 3 different roles played by social enterprises in society. They are to be a problem solver, to be a change maker, and lastly, to provide opportunities and support the disadvantaged.
Problem Solver
Social enterprises are put in line of directly helping people. Social entrepreneurs see a problem in society, and they aim to fix that problem through the businesses they create. Often, social entrepreneurs seem to be so in line with their ideas, they commit and put their lives to solving the problems which people face. They are visionaries, but also realists, and are ultimately concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else.
While social enterprises help to solve problems, they also make a positive impact on society. One such example is The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. It was founded in 1844 and is known to be the very first social enterprise and paved the way for Co-op companies. During that year, as the Industrial Revolution was forcing more and more skilled workers into poverty, retailers very commonly gave unfair charges for weights of goods bought and conducted misappropriate handling...
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...f failing. But it is also the most rewarding. To see a positive change taking place in the world, one change at a time with each social enterprise that is being set up. Social enterprises are an important part in society. Without them, many people would have fallen through even more cracks in the systems we live in.
This essay also covers 2 different examples for each role, social enterprises set up in the past(before 21st century), and social enterprises set up in the 21st century. With a history dating back to 140 years ago when the first social enterprise was set up, the roles of social enterprises still remain the same, and I believe that in the future, these roles will never change. Social enterprises may adapt and modify themselves to different changes in the future; however, the causes and roles of social enterprises in society will still remain the same.
To supply the wants and needs of a consumer, society entrusts wealth-producing resources to the business enterprise.” (Santayana, George. Is The Tyranny Of Shareholder Value Finally Ending? So before we go into greater detail on the different perspectives related to social responsibility, one might question the meaning of social responsibility. It is generally agreed that social responsibility is defined as the business obligation to make decisions that benefit society.... ...
Every business has a social responsibility toward society. That means to maximize positive affects and minimize negative affects on the society. Social responsibilities includes economic-to produce goods and services, that society needs at the price, that satisfy both-business and consumers, legal responsibility-laws that business must obey, ethical responsibilities-behaviors and activities that are expected of business by society, but are not codified in the law, philanthropic responsibilities-represent the company’s desire to give back to society (charietys, volunteering, sponsoring).
Q.3 The Salvation Army is a Social enterprise which is active to eradicate poverty and distress from New Zealand. Based on Abu Saifan theory of Social Enterprise following are the 5 similarities of social enterprise with profit oriented one:
"The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession's focus on individual well-being in a social context and the well-being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living" (NASW code of ethics).
Milton Friedman presents a compelling argument in “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits” by arguing that businesses need to focus only on increasing their profits and integrating social responsibility will only hurt them as a company. Since “only people can have responsibilities” (Friedman 52), Friedman argues that businesses as a whole do not have any type of real responsibilities because there is not a singular person for these responsibilities to fall on. Corporate executives are people as well and may feel they have social responsibilities to society but these “are the social responsibilities of individuals, not of business” (51). In terms of corporations, the businessmen are the ones that hold the responsibility of the company. Friedman argues that the only responsibility these managers hold is to those who own the corporation, the shareholders. If the individuals themselves want to contribute to social responsibility they must do it with their own money in their personal lives, but they should not use social responsibility in
In the present market economy, social innovation should not replace Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) but should enhance it. Some scholars have shown that whereas innovation has been an integral part of a company’s survival it was not part of CSR (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). In the past, CSR was applied in areas of citizenship duties and operation licences; however, this is not sufficient in the modern complex business environment (Googins, 2013).
The corporate social responsibility is a commitment by a business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life for employees and their families’ as-well as contributing to the society. Walmart is a well-known company that offers customers the items they want and need at a low cost, with nearly 4,000 stores in the United States. According to the Fortune 500, Walmart was ranked number 1 in 2015. Just like any other superstore Walmart needs to continue the use of social responsibility by recreating a relationship between business and the community especially if they want to dominate the competition in 2016. The use of sustainability, strategic philanthropy, causing market, shared values, stakeholders and global perspective will help readers understand the purpose of social responsibilities in the corporate world.
There are slow adoption rates for internal corporate social networks for many reasons. Although management and organization plays a role, the technology factor is the main reasons why employees are refusing to use these internal networks. With the rate at which technology is becoming more and more advanced, social networking systems are constantly updating their software and user interface (Laudon & Laudon, 2013). This mean that employees who are used to traditional forms of networking such as email, have to take the time to learn new systems and keep up with more social networking than they would like. In the eyes of the employee, using traditional forms of networking is simply more efficient. In order to make these internal social networking programs work, companies need to make more user friendly and easily manageable sites (Altman, 2015). Management also plays a part in the slow adoption rates. Managers need to provide more incentive for employees to use these networks aside from basic social interaction. For example, instead of sending memo’s via email, or other traditional forms of communication, slowly veer employees to seek memos on the company’s social networking site. Making strides like this will give employees more incentive to at least use the sites more often and participate in discussions and posts related to the business. This will allow employees to explore the sites and discover other useful features that might help improve productivity within the office. Organization of the sites could also be greatly approved. Many companies try to mimic other popular social networking sites, this however, may not be a viable solution. Instead, IT personnel should format th...
Government support for social economy entities is recognized in European Union, Brazil and Argentina. While in countries of Africa and Asia support is built by the citizens forums and networks on sustainable development and by United Nations agencies. Among policy themes on social enterprises are: improving access to financial resources; research for increasing understanding and visibility; capacity building; ac¬cess to public procurement.
Drawing on your knowledge of social innovation and organizational form, compare and contrast two organizational forms (e.g association and social movement; company limited by guarantee and coop; hybrid and some ‘pure’ form. Critically evaluate them with regard to their enabling or constraining impact on social innovation. Draw liberally on the relevant literature and illustrate with examples.
Throughout the world, there are people who live below the poverty level. There are families in need of many things that are not readily available to them. Some people are unable to afford housing or clothing. They may not have a stable life or job to help them get ahead. Luckily, there are people who are willing to help. There are some big businesses taking a stand and proving that they are good for the community. They are good at helping families who are in need. It is all done by companies who choose to make an impact investment for social enterprise.
Dahl(1972: 18) “every large corporation should be thought of as a social enterprise: that is an entity whose existence and decisions can be justified insofar as they serve public or social
The first discussion question posed was, “How does Dr. Friedman characterize discussions on the “social responsibilities of business”? Why (Jennings, 2009, p. 79)? Friedman (1970) characterized the discussions on social responsibilities as one hundred percent unadulterated socialism. Friedman (1970) characterized these discussions in that manner because he felt that a corporate executive should focus solely on making profits and not on social aspects. He mentioned how people who conduct and express themselves in this fashion are positively reinforcing and supporting the actions of individuals that have been weakening the foundational blocks of free society. Friedman (1970) posed a question which was the crux of his 1970 article “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits” where he investigated the true contextual meaning of what responsibilities mean to businesses. Friedman describes how businesses cann...
Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to move in different directions. ust as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss to improve systems, invent new approaches, and create solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur develops innovative solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.
Nevertheless, social entrepreneurs today will need to apply modern business models to generate more income to maximise social impact. For example, instead of relying on donations alone, social entrepreneurs will need to adopt a long term, self-sustaining approach towards generating income to fund its social initiatives. To maintain attraction of capital and draw the attentions of potential volunteers, social enterprises will need to manage the needs of all stakeholders, not only that of the donors. This is in line with the Stakeholder’s Theory by Edward Freeman, where he argued that many other parties are involved in an organisation and that their needs must be equally addressed. One important stakeholder in social enterprises is the volunteers. Equally important is for social enterprises today to strike a balance in managing income generation and executing social initiatives. Similar to for-profit organisations, social enterprises will need to manage product and service delivery, stakeholder communications, regulatory compliance and many other complex business