Bill Drayton — Social Edge - moladi housing the POOR

Bill Drayton — Social Edge

Social entrepreneurship - the practice of responding to market failures with transformative and financially sustainable innovations aimed at solving social problems. Transformative InnovationsAshoka Founder Bill Drayton has famously commented that “social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” Like other entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs are creative thinkers, continuously striving for innovation, which can involve new technologies, supply sources, distribution outlets, or methods of production. Innovation may also mean starting new organizations, or offering new products or services. Innovative ideas can be completely new inventions or creative adaptations of existing ones. Many scholars take this focus on innovation even further. Social entrepreneurs are “change agents,” creating “large-scale change through pattern-breaking ideas,” “addressing the root causes” of social problems, possessing “the ambition to create systemic change by introducing a new idea and persuading others to adopt it,” and changing “the social systems that create and maintain” problems. These types of transformative changes can be national or global. They can also often be highly localized—but no less powerful—in their impact. Most often, social entrepreneurs who create transformative changes combine innovative practices, deep and targeted knowledge of their social issue area, applied and cutting-edge research, and political savvy to reach their goals. For all entrepreneurs, whether in the business or social realm, innovation is not a one-time event—but continues over time. Of course, while addressing a social problem with a potentially transformative innovation is an essential component of the definition of social entrepreneurship offered here, succeeding in generating such transformation is not. The field, like any other, includes success stories and strong leaders, as well as those who fall short of their aspirations. Nonetheless, the definition of social entrepreneurship requires that initiatives at least have the potential for transformative social innovation on a local, national, or global scale. This characteristic distinguishes social entrepreneurship from other nonprofit, business, or government service providers that may be more narrowly focused on meeting the most pressing social needs as they emerge.

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