Social Enterprise as Catalyst for Change: Case Study of India and UK

Abstract

The globalization economies have heightened the importance of entrepreneurial action for creating wealth (Hitt et al. in Strateg Manag J 22(6–7):479–491, 2001) and addressing persistent social problems (Zahra et al. in Acad Manag Rev 25:509–524, 2000). This has left many in poverty, intensifying the plight of those who occupy the bottom of the pyramid (Prahalad in The Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: Eradicating poverty through profits. Wharton School Publishing, Upper Saddle, 2006). Demographic shifts, liberalization of national economies and attendant markets, institutional and state failures, and technological advances have combined to increase the calls for more social consciousness within businesses, providing the impetus for the formation of social ventures. Porter describes social entrepreneurship as a “Trojan horse,” a means to get business on board as part of a larger movement calling for “a more ethical and socially inclusive capitalism” (Driver in Acad Manag Learn Educ 11(3):421–431, 2012: 421). Social entrepreneurship may be the vehicle or catalyst to change the economic system in such a way that profits produce positive social and economic change, and financial markets reward companies for doing so through social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs represent a powerful idea, an idea that is relevant today more than ever before: Business can be a vehicle to create both economic values and contributing to building a fair and equitable society. The financial crisis has united economists and philosophers in an effort to promote a more inclusive global economy. The introduction of social enterprise in a global context has advanced an institutional shift in the way society is governed. Social enterprises are frequently referred to as “agents of change.” Social enterprises are gaining popularity in many parts of the world due to their great potential to advance the agenda of inclusive and sustainable growth. Social enterprise could be acknowledged, which begs the question, as a “broader economic social and solidarity movement” and as “an alternative to mainstream capitalist enterprise, which aims to combine economically viable business for wealth creation, service provision and improving well-being of individuals and places” (Farmer et al. in Soc Entrep J 12:235–254, 2016).