Social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly in size, scope and support as more becoming aware of its benefit in adding quality of life to the community.
These days, an increasing number of organisations are using it as a strategy to address social problems across emerging markets.
According to the British Council and Social Enterprise UK, there are now approximately 11 million social enterprises globally.
Malaysia is not left behind as it was reported in 2018 in the British Council’s report on the State of Social Enterprise that there were 20,749 social enterprises in the country, a majority of which were cooperatives.
This number may increase in the present.
Example of some of the social entrepreneurs who strive to solve social problems in Malaysia includes Teach for Malaysia, ‘Light a Home’ project, Biji-biji Initiative, Gerai Orang Asli, EPIC Homes and EcoKnights.
In April 2022, Malaysia launched the Social Entrepreneurship Action Framework 2030 (SEMy2030) to shape the direction for the development of social enterprises and social entrepreneurship in Malaysia.
Many of these projects are improving people’s health, safeguarding the environment and creating more economic opportunities.
Focusing on impact
Social entrepreneurship is all about creating something positive for the society that can make an impact.
Social enterprises attempt to impact people’s well-being, the environment, and communities through entrepreneurial and innovative business efforts.
The goal of social entrepreneurship is to take business goals further by addressing societal and environmental issues.
Through this, customers, employees and stakeholders feel good when they are connected with companies that are helping their community or the world at large.
Hence, instead of profit driven like other businesses and start-ups, social entrepreneurship will be driven by social cause and making positive impact that can impact the society on a greater scale.
Transforming the system
Social entrepreneurship is not only about making an impact and achieving goals.
Book author, Katie Smith Milway noted in her article, How Social Entrepreneurs Can Have the Most Impact said, “Instead of growing their organizations, they need to think about making the problems go away,”.
Social entrepreneurship is different from businesses and starts ups which are all about making profits, but instead challenging established social systems to better address societal challenges.
Hence, social entrepreneurship is also about systemic change, shifting the existing equilibrium to a new one.
Every social entrepreneur regardless whether it is big or small will need to find a way to go beyond making progress to solving the problem.
Better working environment
Every social entrepreneur starts their businesses with a purpose and goal in mind.
Hence, in order to make that goal a reality, the workplace environment plays a vital role by making it a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.
By nurturing the entrepreneurial attitude of team members and involving them in the innovation process, it not only helps in better team functionality but also helps in incremental ideas.
In addition to this, if a company is devoted to good causes, the company’s culture will reflect its willingness to hear new voices.
When the value and passion of the company is reflected through the ethics of a social enterprise, employees will feel encouraged (and supported) to develop new and better ways to do their jobs.
And thus, this forms equitable working relationships, which is what employees are looking in today’s job market.
This also means that employees feel empowered to start contributing to the bigger picture.
A more motivated and creative workforce will ultimately lead to great productivity and in turn improved profits for the business.
