social entrepreneurship

Y-Negocios

2022

We explain what social entrepreneurship is and what the objectives of these companies are. Classification, characteristics and examples.

Social enterprises apply market methods to achieve social goals.

What is social entrepreneurship?

A social enterprise is understood as a type of business different from the typical private for-profit company and also from the public company of the state sector, whose mission is to satisfy the social, environmental or other needs of the community in which it unfolds.

Seen this way, social enterprises apply market methods to achieve objectives social. This includes both non-profit organizations and companies with commercial purposes but with a social purpose.

Therefore, instead of maximizing the participation of their shareholders, these types of companies propose goals social impact in their communities or the world, such as financing free activities, supporting micro-enterprises, protecting the weakest sectors, etc.

Social enterprises are often financed by the Condition or by private investors, but in general terms they aspire to a certain margin of autonomy and Liberty that necessarily goes through the self-sustaining. Cooperatives, unions, manyNGOs and community organizations are good examples of social entrepreneurship.

Objectives of social entrepreneurship

Social enterprises have financial, social and environmental objectives.

The objectives of these types of companies are often referred to as the "triple bottom line", as they imply success in three integrated areas: financial objectives, social objectives and environmental objectives.

This means that all social entrepreneurship aspires in some way to balance these three aspects of its fundamental mission: economic success, responsibility social and environmental.

The nature of these goals can be quite varied, other than that. Since the reduction of the poverty, mass sex education, sex awareness climate changeetc., everything may be of interest to a entrepreneurship of this type.

Types of social entrepreneurship

Broadly speaking, social enterprises can be classified into four categories, according to their fundamental objective:

  • Promotion social ventures. Those whose objective is to spread a type of ideas, behaviors or behaviors, in favor of a social or ecological cause.
  • Social enterprises of specialists. Those constituted by professionals with a high degree of specialization in a matter of social interest, who fulfill the role of disseminating knowledge specialized, educate or inform the bulk of the population.
  • Local action social enterprises. Those who take as their goal the solution of problems specific, specific, that afflict the society in which they unfold.
  • Long-range social ventures. Those that intend to tackle wide-ranging problems, considered to be of international or universal importance.

They could also be classified according to the origin of their financing in:

  • Dependents Those who receive money from someone else institution, either private (commercial) or public (state).
  • Independent. Those who are self-managed or prefer to maintain their autonomy free of monetary rewards.

Characteristics of social entrepreneurship

A social enterprise privileges social action over profit.

The broad characteristics of a social enterprise are:

  • It privileges social action over profit.
  • The resolution or at least reduction of problems of interest community, social or even global, for the improvement of human life.
  • It pursues its tasks using methods Y speeches characteristic of the commercial or business field, especially the advertising.
  • It provides employment in the same way that commercial companies do.

Examples of social entrepreneurship

Some examples of social entrepreneurship are the following:

  • Interruption. This Argentine company founded in 2000 aims to disseminate the Commerce fair and the certification of agricultural products with ethical and responsible methods. His success was such that in 2003 he opened a branch in New York and in 2012 in Peru.
  • Yaqua. This Peruvian brand of Water bottled claims to be neither a company nor an NGO, and dedicates 100% of its Profits to the solution of the problems of water availability of the small national communities within their reach, in a critical panorama of almost 8 million people without access to drinking water in Peru.
  • Social Factory. Mexican social company created in 2007 that aims to revalue and formalize the textile trade of hundreds of indigenous women workers from five Mexican states, promoting the equality of opportunities, the equity and fair trade in a country notorious for its abused minorities.
  • Apps for Good. This company, born in London at the beginning of 2010, has as its primary objective the independent development of technological applications, but not for its workers, but by the communities themselves: for this they teach courses in educational institutions and promote open source so that people are the ones who provide themselves with the technological solutions they need to make their lives better.
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