Social Entrepreneurship

Themed around the emerging agendas for developing new, sustainable models of social sector excellence and systemic impact, Social Entrepreneurship offers, for the first time, a wide-ranging, internationally-focused selection of cutting-edge work from leading academics, policy makers, and practitioners. Together they seek to clarify some of the ambiguity around this term, describe a range of social entrepreneurship projects, and establish a clear set of frameworks with which to understand it.

Included in the volume are contributions from Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance, Geoff Mulgan, former head of the British prime minister's policy unit, and Bill Drayton, founder of the Ashoka network of social entrepreneurs. Jeff Skoll, founder of the Skoll Foundation, and first president of eBay, provides a preface.

Description of chapter 10, Social Enterprise Models and Their Mission and Money Relationships, by Kim Alter

In Chapter 10, Sutia Kim Alter sets out an extensive typology of social enterprise organizational forms. Alter reminds us that the social enterprise model combines both social impact and financial value creation by adopting various business elements within the context of achieving a social mission. The objective is to diversify funding in order to support sustainability and longer-term impact. However, she also acknowledges that this model will not be appropriate for every social entrepreneur.

Drawing on her extensive experience of consulting with social sector groups across Latin America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and elsewhere, Alter distinguishes three forms of social enterprise: mission-centric, mission-related, and unrelated to mission. Building on this analysis, the chapter then goes on to identify three operational types of social enterprise: embedded, integrated, and external. Alter then explores seven specific prototypes of organizational forms across these three types. Each prototype is set out with a detailed case study example.

The next section of the chapter considers combined models that bring together two or more of the seven prototypes as either ‘complex’, ‘mixed’, or ‘enhancing’ organizational forms. Alter concludes by reminding us of the limitations of the social enterprise approach and warns against assuming it is the ‘holy grail’ of social entrepreneurship.

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