4-6 pages double-spaced Business Ethic Paper!!!
Maoxiaoying
dees.pptxBusiness Ethics
Social entrepreneurship
Dee’s Main Claim
Social entrepreneurship is influenced by two cultures: the culture of charity and the culture of problem solving. Currently these two cultures are taken to be in conflict with one another, but in order for social entrepreneurship to succeed, it must integrate these values.
Two cultures
| Culture of Charity | Culture of Problem Solving |
| Tied to the heart | Tied to the head |
| Stems from moral and religious traditions around the world | Stems from scientific, industrial, and entrepreneurial era |
| Charity is a virtue– always good to have | Problem solving is a skill– it can be used for good or bad ends |
| Whether an act of charity is good is determined by whether the person acted selflessly and out of compassion | When a particular instance of problem solving is good is determined by how useful it was for getting the desired results. |
Social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship, which involves private parties trying to solve social problems, draws from both of these cultures.
This trend has its roots in the Enlightenment era, when people started to grow frustrated with the inability of charity to solve the problems that it is responding to, and beginning to look for more scientific and systematic solutions to these problems. This led to things like aid programs/social work.
Social entrepreneurship tries to use business to solve these same problems. This decentralizes the problem solving, and leads to more innovation.
Clash of Cultures
“The culture of charity has a strong legacy in terms of the norms, legal structures, and language that shape behavior in the social sector, a legacy that has helped many social entrepreneurs attract resources to their causes, but that has also inhibited the development of social entrepreneurs.” (322)
Benefits of Charity
Benefits the giver
Psychological/spiritual/emotional effects of giving
Benefits society
Counterbalances self-interested behaviors, which can destroy society if unchecked
Important in times of crisis
Strengthens sense of community
Allows society to draw on private resources in a voluntary way, which relieves some of the burden on the state to care for those with less
Benefits social entrepreneurs
Often drives them to solve these problems
Motivates people to donate to social entrepreneurs to help them start out
Tensions Between Charity and Problem Solving
Keys to Sustainable Social Enterprise: Dees
Measure outcomes
Draw attention to importance of being smart about how we give
Make performance information of social enterprises available
Input of communities you are helping
Don’t fear social enterprises being profitable
Change public perception and legal structures
Attract and keep talented people
Be careful not to exploit the poor while doing this
Engage your customers/donors
Find ways to emotionally engage people about long-term problems/prevention
Engage supporters in the problem solving process
Focus on solving problems long-term, not just relieving suffering
Keys to Sustainable Social Enterprise: Martin & Osberg
The challenge
Social enterprises have to do two things to succeed:
Achieve their social goals:
Social enterprises typically aim to benefit a disadvantaged segment of society, often with the goal of “permanently transforming their lives by altering a prevailing socioeconomic equilibrium that works to their disadvantage” (88). Often these segments are too small or powerless to be targeted by government or business ordinarily.
Be financially sustainable:
If they are financially sustainable, they do not have to rely on subsidies from the government or charitable donors, which are not guaranteed to continue indefinitely.
Keys to Sustainable Social Enterprise: Martin & Osberg
The solution
Successful social enterprises often focus on changing two things:
The economic actors involved in a situation
The technology being used
Changing economic actors
One of the main problems facing the disadvantaged populations targeted by social entrepreneurs is that the balance of power is tilted against them.
Social enterprises can tilt the balance of power by shifting what groups are taken into account in business or changing their role.
They can target consumers.
Social enterprises can convince people to vote with their wallets and sway the market toward ethically produced goods (or other products offered by social enterprises). This can potentially create long term change in demand.
They can change the role of government.
Can help government more effectively and cheaply intervene
Can replace some of the roles ordinarily played by government
Getting consumers and/or the government to take their side amplifies the voices of the target populations.
Changing technology
Social enterprises can supply populations that wouldn’t otherwise be served with goods and services by:
Replacing a key technology with a lower cost one
Creating a new technology
Repurposing an existing technology
