The definition of social entrepreneurship. Some conceptual elements for discussion

Abstract

The Entrepreneurship Centre of the Universidad del Rosario - UR Emprende, as part of the School of Business Administration, promotes the development of entrepreneurship projects among all those members of the Rosario community. Five years after its creation a reflection begins in terms of what approach it should provide to users of such service. Given the context provided by the mission of Universidad del Rosario, highlighting a strong social and research component, an opportunity to work on the issue of Social Entrepreneurship is found. However, it identifies gaps in the approach to the concept. Thus, this research as part of a graduation project to qualify for a master’s degree in social studies, which aims to build a model for social entrepreneurship for Universidad del Rosario emerges.

Within a qualitative methodological framework, 10 in-depth interviews were carried out with different actors, both within Universidad del Rosario, and with external actors. These interviews were supplemented by a bibliographical review on the subject of social entrepreneurship and participation in activities developed by the Entrepreneurship Center UR Emprende, which provided contributions from the practical field to the construction of the model.

The resulting model has three components, referring to management processes, community strengthening and sustainability of entrepreneurship. The model highlights three key aspects: (i) the difference between production of social value and economic value, to the extent that social value is measured in terms of the management capability of communities over their own process of transformation and social change; (ii) the importance of agents of change in the processes of development of entrepreneurship, but with a different role, acting as allies of the process and of the communities and (iii) differentiating the term “social entrepreneurship” from others as social responsibility, shared value and / or social innovation that have been used as synonyms.