Edward D. Bewayo

(Department of Management, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA)

 

 

Abstract: Social entrepreneurship is the creation of social value through innovative entrepreneurial business models (Seelos & Mair, 2004). Social value is about satisfying basic humanitarian needs such as abject poverty, needs which typical business entrepreneurship cannot or doesn’t satisfy. Situations such as this are growing everywhere, even in countries such as the U.S. Consequently, social entrepreneurship is a growing sub-field within the entrepreneurship field. In response to this trend, the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) just recently added social entrepreneurship to its list of membership interests. Universities, for example Oxford and Harvard, have set up research centers that focus on social entrepreneurship. There is also an expanding number of corporate and philanthropic foundations devoted exclusively to social entrepreneurship. The Skoll Foundation is one of the leaders. Recently, the Nobel Prize for Peace has gone to social entrepreneurs, such as Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank. Social entrepreneurship is extremely important in developing countries such as Kenya in East Africa. But how does one succeed as a social entrepreneur, especially in East Africa? This paper examines existing literature to provide some answer. It studies four successful social enterprises, including the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.

 

 

Key words: entrepreneur; entrepreneurial; entrepreneurship; management and institutions

 

JEL codes: M13, M1, O17