Ecosystem for Social Entrepreneurship in India: Facilitating Returnee Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The practice of knowledge transfer through association with distant lands dates back centuries and numerous high-impact discoveries, inventions and business practices have found their way into India through this spillover route. Over time, the institutional context and grammar of such interaction and commerce have undergone a massive change with a change in the nature of the government itself, from that of a police state to that of a welfare state. Governments world over are faced with the challenge to discharge their welfare role, as people’s expectations have been bolstered through high Internet penetration rates and through that access to hitherto classified knowledge. However, older state institutions are failing to deliver under these changed circumstances, as they were never created in the first place to be performers with accountability. In such a scenario, a new form of social enterprise is gaining fast currency as an institutional model. These new age enterprises are composed of returnee entrepreneurs, who have trained with the best in the industry, at the best locations of the world, and possess high levels of accountability due to high personal stakes involved. This study explores the potential role of returnee entrepreneurs in India and examines the premise that their impact is not as high as it could be due to the absence of a conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem. This study further outlines the ecosystem triggers and enablers that nurture successful returnee entrepreneurs, and then proposes an ideal policy framework that could enable returnee entrepreneurs to contribute meaningfully in the Indian context.