The main idea behind social entrepreneurship

IN the 2021 Budget, the government will conduct a social enterprise development programme with anal location of RM20 million to the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre and selected agencies.

It is believed that the allocation will encourage the development of social enterprises and aid in improving socioeconomic welfare and community building.

Nevertheless, social enterprise is still seen traditionally as in the saying, “Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”.

Therefore, it is common if “charities” or “welfare associations” pop up in the public’s mind if they were to be asked about social enterprises.

Instead, I would argue, “Give a man the tools and resources to create a fishing business, and his whole village can thrive for generations”. That is the main idea behind social entrepreneurship.

It is primarily designed, besides corporate creation, to meet the social needs not yet achieved by the government and/or by the trade sector.

Unlike a capitalist market economy, which advocates the achievement of strictly financial objectives, social entrepreneurship is part of solidarity logic which prioritises social cohesion.

Therefore, social entrepreneurship should be seen as “using systematic entrepreneurial models to create and manage organisations with a mission for social change”.

Social entrepreneurship encompasses processes related to the discovery of opportunities aimed at creating social wealth and the organisational processes developed and used to achieve the desired results.

Ideally, the concept of social entrepreneurship should emphasise the existence of two basic components:

The discovery and exploitation of business opportunities through the review of new problems not yet explored or completed by traditional organisations; and,

The creation of a social value for the needy.

Social entrepreneurship, which aims at catalysing a social change by providing basic human needs in a sustainable way, could then be a key driver for sustainable development.

Advocating a sustainable development which respects human rights and cares about a reasonable use of resources, social entrepreneurship refers to the treatment of complex social and wicked problems.

Issues like unemployment, crime, problems of drug addiction, poverty, social exclusion. are negative externalities caused by commercial legitimate or illegitimate activities and call for the development of innovative solutions and mechanisms.

We suggest looking into the understanding of the entrepreneur as the forerunner of a socially responsible activity.

Compared with the traditional entrepreneurs who see problems from a purely economic view, social entrepreneurs draw more potential in their personal experience and learn to handle social problems. This is due to their strong convictions, their openness to others and their pragmatism, which enable them to innovate in an institutional environment conductive to collective learning.

In the field of entrepreneurship education, training social entrepreneurs is almost non-existent. We need to emphasise to the educators and researchers about a form of social entrepreneurship oriented towards sustainable development.

This can be performed through putting the individual and the social entrepreneur at the heart of the entrepreneurial activity.

The government should redistribute wealth, balance the markets and support all the activities that generate socialisation by providing the necessary public funding.

Last but not least, it is hoped that this thinking will help evoke a debate on the role of the business start-up support structures, by encouraging governments and professionals to promote new ways of training social entrepreneurs.