Rethinking social
entrepreneurship: A sociological
perspective
Rejoice Shumba
University of Johannesburg
About the study
 The study begins with an analysis of academic literature on social
entrepreneurship in which the original meaning of social
entrepreneurship is examined in conjunction with the original
meaning of entrepreneurship. The dominant opinions on social
entrepreneurship put emphasis on earned income, enterprises and
individual will and determination. In is argued that these factors,
although important are not central to the notion of social
entrepreneurship. Core to social entrepreneurship are systemchanging and pattern-breaking innovative ideas that make life
better for marginalised groups in society.
About the study
 The first part of the research was an exploration of how key
role players in the social entrepreneurship space in South
Africa; academics, foundations, fellowship organisations,
government and social entrepreneurs, define social
entrepreneurship. Similar to other countries, the hegemony
on social entrepreneurship has made people understand
social entrepreneurship in terms of enterprises, earned
income, individual will and determination. The discourse on
social entrepreneurship in South Africa is shaped by business
school ideology.
The social entrepreneurship space
Growing interest in social entrepreneurship in South Africa
evidenced by:
 Increasing number of recognised social entrepreneurs eg
number of Ashoka Fellows in South Africa
 Increasing number of courses on social entrepreneurship
 Increasing number of centres on social entrepreneurship
 Increasing number of academic output on social
entrepreneurship (though still very little)
The social entrepreneurship space:
Academics
Susan Steinman
Boris urban
Thumbadoo and Wilson
Crispen Karanda and Nuria
Toledano
Rejoice Shumba (forthcoming)
????????
The Social Entrepreneurship Space:
Fellowship Organisations
Ashoka
Unltd South Africa
Schwab Foundation for
Social Entrepreneurs
Spark
The social entrepreneurship space:
Networks for social entrepreneurs
Gibbs Network
ASEN
The social entrepreneurship space:
Centres on social entrepreneurship
Centre for social
entrepreneurship and
social economy
Courses on social entrepreneurship
 Gibbs: social entrepreneurship certificate programme
 In 2007, the Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship
Programme implemented a short course for the fellows
which focused on social entrepreneurship and ethical
business. The result of the course is that a number of the
fellows went on to start social enterprises. (Sloan, 2013).
 The Connect-123 semester long social entrepreneurship
programme at UCT provides hands on experiences of
challenges of social entrepreneurship. The course gives
undergraduate students insight into the power of social
enterprise (Connect 123).
 Hand in Hand International held a 5 day interactive course
showcasing the role of social entrepreneurs in reducing
poverty. This was the first time that the course was held in
South Africa (Hand in hand International).
Prevailing definitions
of social
entrepreneurship in
South Africa
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 “Originally, when the project started, it didn’t have a
clear definition, so there was no real ILO definition….so
when I started looking for what kind of hooks, what can
use as references to develop an ILO approach and what
should the ILO approach look like, I found a quote from
a report of the Director General that referred to social
entrepreneurship and defined social entrepreneurs as
people who create market based solutions to social
problems. So that became a useful hook at least as an
entry point for a discussion on concepts and definitions.”
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 Then through the project, through the dialogues and the
practical staff we did on the ground, we then came up
with a more specific approach that basically looked at a
number of defining characteristics and we tended to
focus a little more on the social enterprise…because
when you talk about social entrepreneurship, it is very
much vague and it means different things to different
people
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 We take a different approach from that which says
sustainability is about being independently sustainable,
we have tended to adopt an approach which is common
in the UK which used as a benchmark 50% of income is
earned, recognising that the earned income can still be
from government, it is difficult to tell sometimes what is
earned income, what’s contract but in principle that
seems to be a useful indicator of a sustainable financial
model.
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
For it to qualify for one of the
awards, it has to have earned
income
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
If there is no earned
income, I would not call
it social entrepreneurship
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
The ILO definition is very different
from say the approach of Ashoka
and there are many instances when
that vagueness is useful, so we
tended to focus more on what is
social enterprise and that really
comes from the ILO’s work which is
focused on the enterprise
development angle
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 So the big issue here is that we are facing
a cross roads moment where social
business became a big buzz word in South
Africa, and it is on everyone’s lips, In a
way, people think that it is a substitute for
social entrepreneurship in the sense that I
can develop my NGO as a social business
because I sell something for a service that
will generate the funds that I will reinvest
into my social NGO so it is a for profit but
my profits go into the NGO so it’s a
business but its purpose is social.
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 Our challenge is that people in South Africa are using
Social Enterprise, Social Business and social
entrepreneurship interchangeably and they take it to
mean one and the same thing.
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 Social enterprise is just another model of trying to
generate that financial sustainability of the idea, but if
you don’t have financial sustainability of the idea, then
you are just going to be running your community
bakeries all over the place, is that the systemic change
we want to see, everyone opening a community bakery
and we call it social entrepreneurship, that’s a huge
mistake, that’s not it,
Defining Social Entrepreneurship:
Quote from interviews
 but we have to stand up and say, that’s not the kind of
idea that we will support because that is you just
responsing to a difficult moment where you don’t have
funds and your ideas are struggling to be sustainable
and you just came up with this buzz word where you
generate profit for products and services , you call your
self a social business without necessarily equalising the
sustainability of your idea. We are seeing that in Brazil
but in a mild way, it sounds as if it is too heated up
down here
Defining Social Entrepreneurship
 The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 2009, had a
special focus on social entrepreneurship. This was the
first global study on social entrepreneurship that South
Africa participated in (Notten :2010). Reporting on the
findings of the findings of the GEM, Notten (2010)
defines social entrepreneurs as small businesses that
employ business principles and operate as for profit
organisations but with an explicit agenda for social good.
Notten (2010) also defines social entrepreneurs as
‘businesses that operate for the social good’
Notten’s
Ashoka definition
 The definition of Ashoka is based on the concept of a
new idea. It has to be a new solution to a problem, not
a solution that solves the symptoms but solves the
causes of the problem, the underlying causes of the
problem, in defining the innovation, we start by defining
the problem, we then separate the problem in terms of
structural problem or systemic problem
Ashoka definition
 we are focused on those kinds of ideas that are able to
change a problem in a way that charity will no longer be
necessary, so for example, instead of giving people food,
how do you create societies where they can produce
food themselves they are long lasting solutions, they
don’t just respond to an immediate need.
Towards a sociological understanding
of social entrepreneurship
So, what do I mean by a sociological perspective
to the study of social entrepreneurship? Vasi
(2007:168) provides good guidance on the
sociological approach to social entrepreneurship.
He explains that Firstly, this is an approach that
realises that social entrepreneurs face considerable
resistance to social change and aims to identify
the social conditions that are conducive to social
entrepreneurship. Secondly, a sociological
perspective can overcome the implicit bias in
studies that consider social entrepreneurship to be
simply a new form of business entrepreneurship
‘with a conscience’ and thirdly, a sociological
perspective can recognise that social
entrepreneurs sometimes fail and this avoid the
common mistake of selecting only successful
entrepreneurs. (Vasi 2007:168).
Towards a sociological understanding
of social entrepreneurship
 Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, a social venture philanthropic
organisation is widely credited with coining the term social
entrepreneur in the late 1980s., However, it was Gregory, J. Dees
who first envisioned social entrepreneurship as a profession and as
a field of study in the late 1990s (Kickul and Lyons (2012:13). There
have been numerous attempts to define social entrepreneurship
after Drayton and Dees, however, since these two ‘founded’ the field
of social entrepreneurship, it is worthwhile to start by discussing
their ‘original’ meaning of the concept.
 Drayton (2006: 45) exemplifies the people that qualify as social
entrepreneurs in the following manner:
 Florence Nightingale transformed public health, nursing, housing
codes, even the use of statistics in public discourse. She was at
least as powerful an entrepreneur as Andrew Carnegie. Today’s
Nightingales include….Jeroo Billimoria, whose Childline free
telephone hotline for and staffed by street children has swept India
and is now spreading globally.
No earned income!

The Ashoka website gives the following examples of social
entrepreneurs. These are system changers who realised that a part of
society was ‘stuck’ and sought ways of getting it ‘unstuck’

Susan B. Anthony (US) : Fought for Women’s Rights in the United
States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead
adoption of the 19th amendment.

Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement,
he caused the redistribution of more that 7, 000 000 acres of land to aid
India’s untouchables and landless.

Dr Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to
early childhood education

Florence Nightingale (UK)Founder of modern nursing, she established
the first school of nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions

John Muir (US) Naturalist and conversationalist, he established the
National Park System and helped found the Sierra Club

Jean Monnet (France): Responsible for the reconstruction of the French
economy following World War 2, including the establishment of the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC and the
European Common Market were direct precursors of the European Union
No market oriented strategy
 Bornstein (2007:3) in his book “How to Change the
World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New
Ideas” which is highly esteemed as a ‘bible’ in social
entrepreneurship adds St Francis of Assis, founder of
the Franciscan Order and explains that he would have
qualified as a social entrepreneur because he built
multiple organisations that advanced pattern changes in
his field. The Skoll Foundation includes among its
exemplary social entrepreneurs Maria Montessori and
Jane Addams, both of whom revolutionised social
service provision in various sectors without necessarily
adopting a market oriented strategy
Concluding Remarks
 Hegemony that shapes our understanding of social
entrepreneurship
 The motive? Agenda?
 Development of social entrepreneurship in South Africa –
recognising pattern breaking and system changing ideas
that
change people’s lives