book – Social Enterprise Development in the Baltic Sea Region

BOOK
Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Concepts, and Tools

Social entrepreneurship and social innovation both seek to improve the world through social change. Whereas social entrepreneurship revolves around the business side of change, social innovation focuses on the processes through which that change is generated. This textbook provides a comprehensive analysis of both topics, covering all the characteristics and elements of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, from a conceptual and practical perspective.

The book includes detailed chapters on:

Social Innovation: Origins, Defnitions, and Main Elements
Characteristics, Types, and Processes for the Construction of Social Innovations
Generation of Values by Social Innovations
Basics, Characteristics, and Differences of Social Entrepreneurship
Similarities and Differences Among Schools of Social Entrepreneurship
Characteristics of the Social Entrepreneur
Business Models of Social Enterprises
From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation
Social Innovation from Companies: Social Purpose Business Models
Social Intrapreneurship, the Main Factor of Social Innovations Within Traditional Companies
Social Impact in Social Innovations: Defnition, Design, and Evaluation
Impact Investment, a Key Element in the Promotion of Social Innovation
Alignment of Social Innovation with Sustainable Development Goals

The read the whole book click HERE or download below.

This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Blog | Educational Materials | Impact Measurement Methodology | Learn | Library

BOOK
Social Innovation: Comparative perspectives

Social innovation is a topic that is more and more being discussed on both national and European levels (hence, the announcement of this being a strategic priority EU wide). To better be able to provide social impact in the society and find novel solutions also for operating social enterprises, it is necessary to explore how social innovation comes into life and what aspects are necessary to foster it.

This open access book is a valuable source for understanding in particular the organizations’ capacity to generate novel ideas, ways and means of doing things, and of addressing public and social problems of many kinds.

This volume’s primary assertion is that the third sector, specifically through stimulating civic involvement, is best placed to produce social innovation, outperforming business firms and state agencies in this regard. By investigating actor contributions to social innovation across seven fields of activity, Social Innovation: Comparative Perspectives develops our understanding of why and how the third sector is central to functioning, cohesive and viable societies.

THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK

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Impact of the Third Sector as Social Innovation The third sector or non-profit sector has increasingly gained, in recent years, policy recognition and attracted academic attention. Researchers have analyzed non-profit organizations from different perspectives, usually emphasizing specific roles this set of institutions is assumed to perform.

The read the whole book click HERE or download below.

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BOOK
Social entrepreneurship teaching resources handbook

Social entrepreneurship education has grown dramatically from the first class taught at Harvard University by Dr. Greg Dees in the mid 1990’s and the first European course at the University of Geneva in Switzerland co-taught by Maximilian Martin and Pamela Hartigan from the Schwab Foundation in 2003. This book will be of great help to everyone embarking on path of social entrepreneurship education or research. Namely, the comprehensive listing of exemplary social entrepreneurship programs, majors and minors from around the globe will give a great insight in the variety of options.

Main chapters of the book include:

Social entrepreneurship pedagogy
Social entrepreneurship research
Social entrepreneurs in action
Social entrepreneurship networks
Global social entrepreneurship faculty director

The full book is available below:

Educational Materials

Social Entrepreneurship – new book on social entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship – A Practice-Based Approach to Social Innovation is a new textbook with a practice-based approach to social innovation by J. Howard Kucher and Stephanie E. Raible.

The book provides in an easily accessible way a comprehensive guide to the various building blocks needed to create a sustainable social enterprises. At the same time, it takes a closer look at how different core elements can contribute to either success or failure for the social enterprises.

An important element of a well-functioning social enterprises is the balance between effective business practices and effective social innovation. In this regard the book analyzes the key skills needed to succeed and points out both what works and what does not work.

With its practical approach, the book provides a good understanding of how social entrepreneurs can transform good ideas into well-functioning companies that can help solve some of the major challenges the world faces and can create lasting and positive change.

Through the book’s discussion questions and various suggestions for activities, students get help with both learning and debate to further the understanding of the issue. Through a detailed and well-described case study as well as through anecdotes, examples and analogies, students are helped to see how a social enterprises works in practice. The book is structured with learning objectives and chapter summaries, that guide the student through key topics such as product development, idea generation, social change theory, marketing and operating structures. Finally, there is a reference to a number of resources where students can seek additional knowledge.

Social entrepreneurship and social enterprises are important elements when it comes to solving some of the major challenges the world is facing in these years (climate impact, loss of biodiversity, inequality, pollution ..).

The book is a great place to start for the growing number of social entrepreneurs who want to tackle these challenges.

About the authors
J. Howard Kucher is an Associate Professor of Social Innovation at the University of Maryland at Baltimore in the United States and Stephanie E. Raible is an Assistant Professor of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware in the United States

FACTS:
Title: Social Entrepreneurship – A Practice-Based Approach to Social Innovation
Authors: J. Howard Kucher and Stephanie E. Raible.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Release Date: January 2022
ISBN: 978 1 78897 422 6
The book is 320 pages and can be purchased here

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Educational Materials

Three books for every social entrepreneur

Are you a social entrepreneur who experienced challenges and now you’re seeking for some fresh solutions or inspiration to keep doing your good job? Are you a beginner who is lost in this vast field of social entrepreneurship? Are you just thinking about becoming a social entrepreneur, but before doing so you want to be sure what you are up to? No matter what is your answer, these three books might help you.

Jonathan C. Lewis – The Unfinished Social Entrepreneur

The Unfinished Social Entrepreneur is about powering up your social justice career. This book is a compendium of 21 original essays and insights – part memoir, part handbook – about the challenges and questions every social entrepreneur thinks about. For the novice changemaker, each chapter bristles with provocative tips and tools to transform your social justice career. Social entrepreneurs are a club of conscience. Sign up. Show up. Stand up.

Jason Haber – The Business of Good: Social Entrepreneurship and the New Bottom Line

The Business of Good narrates the story behind social entrepreneurship as told by the individuals compelled to create a change in the world – not just another business. Serial and social entrepreneur Jason Haber intertwines case studies and anecdotes that show how social entrepreneurship is creating jobs, growing the economy, and ultimately changing the world. From Main Street to Wall Street, today’s social entrepreneurs are rebooting capitalism, challenging the charity industrial complex, and disrupting business models. Haber envelops the reader in the foundation of social entrepreneurship, from Benjamin Franklin to what he calls The Great Convergence, the turn-of-the-millennium zeitgeist shift which provided the fuel for social entrepreneurship’s surge to the forefront of business. Haber shares the stories of inspiring young people that are disrupting established norms and changing the world.

Ruth Shapiro – The Real Problem Solvers: Social Entrepreneurs in America

Today, “social entrepreneurship” describes a host of new initiatives, and often refers to approaches that are breaking from traditional philanthropic and charitable organizational behavior. What types of change have these social entrepreneurial efforts brought to the world of civil society and philanthropy? What works in today’s environment? And, what barriers are these new efforts breaking down as they endeavor to make the world a better place? The Real Problem Solvers brings together leading entrepreneurs, funders, investors, thinkers, and champions in the field to answer these questions from their own, first-person perspectives. In no other book are so many leaders presented side-by-side. Therefore, this is the ideal accessible and personal introduction for students of and newcomers to social entrepreneurship.

Educational Materials | Estonian

Alustava ettevõtja käsiraamat

BDA Consulting OÜ ja Ettevõtluse Arendamise Sihtasutus on koostanud abimaterjali ettevõtlusega alustajale – alustava ettevõtja käsiraamatu. Käsiraamat julgustab samm-sammu haaval läbi mõtlema ettevõtlusega alustamise etapid alates ettevõtjaks olemise plussidest ja miinustest kuni äriplaani koostamise ja äriidee esitlemiseni välja. Raamatus on toodud ettevõtjate edulugusid, mis innustavad ja inspireerivad alustavat ettevõtjat.

Käsiraamatus on ka toetavaid sõnu sotsiaalse ettevõtlusega alustajatele – julgustatakse ellu viima ka sotsiaalseid või keskonnaprobleeme lahendavaid äriideid.

Käsiraamat on kättesaadav eesti keeles: Alustava ettevotja kasiraamat.

Educational Materials | English | Successful Business Models

Book review: Reinventing organizations by Frederic Laloux

When running your social enterprise, have you ever wondered if there is a different way of doing organizational tasks and assigning titles than the traditional hierarchical structure with decisions being made mostly top down? Frederick Laloux, the author of reinventing organizations, wondered just that. He had observed different styles of running organizations which he equated to a color spectrum to help us understand the development of the consciousness of the leading styles and organizational norms.

To begin with, all types of organizational styles are relevant depending on the given circumstance, there is no better or worse, as any leader or organization may display different color types if and when required. With that said the first part of the book described the color spectrum as follows:

Red organizations: “constant exercise of power by chief to keep troops in line. Fear is the glue of the organization.” Examples: Mafia, street gangs

Amber organizations: “Highly formal roles within a hierarchical pyramid. Top-down command and control (what and how).” Examples: Military, most government agencies

Orange organizations: “Goal is to beat competition; achieve profit and growth. Innovation is the key to staying ahead.” Example: Multinational companies

Green organizations: “With the classic pyramid structure, focus on culture and empowerment to achieve extraordinary employee motivation.” Example: Culture driven organizations

Teal organizations: The organizational is seen as its own entity and the staff are its guardians. They practice to trust the abundance of life by taming the ego and use their inner rightness as their compass. They see life as a journey that continually unfolds and build on the strength of each other rather than as a deficit (viewing people as a problem to be solved). They deal gracefully with adversity and values wisdom over rationality. They strives for wholeness: in relation to others, life and nature.

In the 2^nd part of the book, Laloux describes from his research on teal organizations the structures, practices, and cultures of teal organizations. The beauty of his research which he entered into with no predetermined ideas but rather than to learn from his research subjects, he discovered that these practices had organically evolved within the 12 organizations he pinned as teal subjects, each independent and unknown to one another yet had very similar ideals and practices. The 12 companies range from the energy sector to health care to schools and health care organizations, with employees ranging from 110 to 40,000; local to global.

To delve deeper into the teal organizations practices and emergence you can purchase a new or second hand book with free shipping from BetterWorldBooks (a social enterprise).

To learn more:

Youtube videos

Blog | English | Library | Successful Business Models

“Building Social Business” – Muhammad Yunus

What is social business? And how is it different from Social Enterprise?

The term “social business” in European literature has no distinction between social enterprise and social business – they use the term interchangeably. For our purposes we have chosen to make a distinction between social enterprise and social business: the business model that Muhammad Yunus has actively promoted and exemplified in his social entrepreneurial career.

This business model when observed at first glance may seem either extremely altruistic or a pipe-dream for the capitalist minded individual. That may be true, but when you look at the empire, yes empire, the Grameen Group (Muhammed Yunus’ companies born from his original company Grameen Bank based on micro-finance) now counts an impressive 21 social business ventures to its family.

It is true that the social business model is designed with poorer countries in mind, where profit seeking initiatives only create barriers for goods and services that could otherwise be accessible (with some ingenuity) to these populations. Even so, there are poor segments in otherwise rich countries, and this business model if applied with the intent it was created for, can progressively function as a tool to eradicate poverty.

As for the definition, the best source is the original source. Below are the key concepts as described in “Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs” by Muhammad Yunus

Glossary of terms

Non-loss: A distinction from non-profit organizations: The aim for a social business is to have no loss, but can still make a profit.

Non-dividend: shareholders at no time receive a return on investment. What the investor put into the business will be returned at no extra increase of inflation or interest. 20.000 ISK today will be the same in 10 years’ time.

Investor owned: the social business must have individuals or organizations that take on the role of investor with purely social good as their motive (as above they do not receive any return over and above their original investment). The reason here is aligned more so with investors in a profit seeking business (which is investor owned), as opposed to an NGO (which is board controlled).

Definitions

Social business: a non-loss, non-dividend, investor owned organization, where 100% of it‘s resources are for social good. All surplus (profit) is reinvested into the business, eg, 100% is for profit social. There are two distinct types of social businesses.

Type 1: non-loss, non-dividend, investor owned. It solves a social problem & is owned by investors who reinvest their profits in expanding & improving the business. The investors do not earn a profit or dividend and can take out the original investment over time, but dollar for dollar.

Type 2: A profit-making company owned by poor people, either directly or through a trust that is dedicated to a predefined social cause. Profits go to alleviating poverty.

The Principles of social businesses:

1) The business objective is to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) that threaten people and society- not to maximize profit.

2) The company will attain financial & economic sustainability

3) Investors get back only their investment amount. No dividend is given beyond the return of the original investment.

4) When the investment amount is paid back, profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement.

5) The company will be environmentally conscious

6) The workforce gets market wage with better-than-standard working conditions

7) Do it with joy!!!

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