Social Entrepreneurship in Pakistan: Challenges and Prospects

Fatima Tanveer,Nida Qamar,Nighat Ansari,Urooj Qamar

doi:10.29145/jmr/72/070201

Abstract

Social Entrepreneurship (SE) benefits the society by helping to achieve social and economic goals. SE is receiving scholarly attention around the globe but its development is still moderate in Pakistan. Despite the growing trend, the dominant focus of scholars remains the ideological debate about the meaning and definition of SE. Such an approach inhibits the exploration of its other facets. Casting the gap in literature, this paper aims to find out the challenges and prospects that social entrepreneurs face in their journey, specifically in Pakistan. Keeping in view the emerging importance of this sector, this study discusses the findings of 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with leading social entrepreneurs, practitioners and academicians related to the field to understand the phenomenon at hand. Drawing upon the findings of the study, useful insights have been put forth as its theoretical contribution. Moreover, local and national government can benefit from the findings to enhance consciousness regarding the fourth sector of the economy, eventually augmenting the available social capital.

Highlights

There has been a steady rise of scholarly interest in social enterprises and social entrepreneurship (SE) (Saebi, Foss, & Linder, 2019)
Being the fourth sector of the economy (Rubio, García & Fuentes, 2019), it is very important to understand what challenges and prospects are faced by social entrepreneurs in the cultural context of Pakistan and this paper is aimed at increasing the understanding of this concept
There are dire financial constraints for emerging entrepreneurs that has become difficult because of corruption and rent seeking. This is why most of the entrepreneurship happening in Pakistan is of an informal nature

Summary

Introduction

There has been a steady rise of scholarly interest in social enterprises and social entrepreneurship (SE) (Saebi, Foss, & Linder, 2019). Individuals and organizations are interested in improving the conditions of the sufferers, the excluded and the marginalized segments of the society (Dacin, Dacin, & Tracey, 2011). Profit oriented nature of entrepreneurship breeds various issues in the social context, especially when its aim is to cater the marginalized groups. A solution to these problems is SE which satisfies both social and economic goals. The concept of SE has been around since 1950s but during the past decade, it has reemerged as a research stream (Saebi et al, 2019). The concept of SE is challenging to grasp in its definitional, theoretical, and methodological concerns (Saebi et al, 2019)

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion