scholarly journals Remote working challenges for Georgian social enterprises in the context of the current pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 39-53
Author(s):  
Iza Gigauri ◽  
Kakhaber Djakeli

Abstract The lockdown regulations aiming at avoiding the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 have caused disruptions in organizations of all types or sizes. In order to survive and remain competitive, enterprises have moved online. In line with the dramatic changes around the globe triggered by the regulations as a part of preventive measures, social enterprises switched to working from home. As a result, entrepreneurs have to learn new digital skills to capture the potential of digitalization as it is considered to have an ability to accelerate economic recovery after the pandemic. Yet digitalization influences organizational processes and operations and requires changes in strategies. In light of these transformations, researching social enterprises from different angles is of particular importance when economies are facing the threat of recession, as social entrepreneurship addresses market failure and can tackle social problems. Social entrepreneurs can find innovative solutions to modern challenges and help society and economies to transform. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the feasibility of remote working and digitalization in social enterprises. The paper outlines remote working concerns in social enterprises in the Republic of Georgia and analyses flextime opportunities for enterprise employees. The empirical study is based on a qualitative research approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with the seventeen Georgian social entrepreneurs to explore the research questions. The paper contributes to understanding remote working in social enterprises and offers suggestions for future study directions in this under-researched area.

Author(s):  
Stasė Navasaitienė ◽  
Marharyta Vishniakova ◽  
Rasa Rukuižienė

The article presents the overview of the approaches and models, which are important in determination of social entrepreneurship driving forces. The research problem is arised for getting more wide view about activities and motivation issues of social entrepreneurs in the Republic of Belarus. The research aims to examine the individual features and motives of social entrepreneurs in profile of their personality related to appropriate business models for social entrepreneurship development. The broad and narrow approaches are used to get an answer about the perspectives of social entrepreneurship in this country. The objectives of research are arised as follow: 1) define approaches of social entrepreneurs‘ for individual profiling; 2) describe the motives of entrepreneurs to start activities for social business; 3) highlight the business models of social enterprises‘ establishment. The methods of research: monographic, descriptive and meta-analysis of scientific literature. As well as the analysis of the empirical data is produced by in-depth interviews with the heads of organizations and enterprises engaged in social entrepreneurship in the Republic of Belarus (in-depth interviews were conducted in the period from 15th August to 15th November 2015, and 10 experts were involved). The key findings of research: marked a „broad“ and „narrow“ approaches for higlighting the profile of social entrepreneurs; approved the consequences that social entrepreneurs are high motivated and biased towards achieving socially beneficial purposes rather than material well-being; identified the circumstances about the existance of individual and organizational models for establishment social enterprises.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
William Durbin

<p>How we live our lives here in New Zealand affects others who are distant from us. We live in a world with many networks across space, which connect people with radically different lifestyles. These connections create an avenue to respond to the poverty of these ‘distant others’. One such network of connections is the coffee industry. Ethical consumption and social entrepreneurship within the coffee industry are a means to address development issues, and ultimately poverty. This research will look into coffee social enterprises, and how they can be included in a post-development theoretical framework. In particular, it will discuss the motivations of social entrepreneurs involved in the coffee companies interviewed.  Post-development provides a theoretical framework for this research of coffee social enterprises. It provides a critique to mainstream development, and has questioned how development is done, as well as its very validity. In doing so, it has encouraged new ways of ‘doing development’. One example of this is Sally Matthews’ three responses the wealthy can have to poverty: first, re-thinking of the development discourse in light of post-development; secondly, supporting popular initiatives; and thirdly, solidarity with distant others here at home.  This is an appreciative inquiry into different coffee companies, using qualitative ethnographic methods. Seven in-depth interviews have been conducted with managers, past owners or head roasters, as well as one with an expert on social enterprise.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Margie Sutherland ◽  
Kerryn Krige

Subject area This case study focuses on social entrepreneurship in emerging markets, looking at what is social entrepreneurship, theories of market failure, opportunity generation through effectuation, social franchising and funding. Study level/applicability Students of social entrepreneurship, development studies, sustainable livelihoods and asset-based development. It is useful for customised or short programmes or for students with a background in business (e.g. Diploma in Business Administration/MBA/custom programmes) wanting to understand social enterprise and blended theories of social and economic change. Case overview The case tells the story of Unjani container clinics which are providing affordable, quality access to people who struggle to access South Africa’s crumbling public health system. Dr Iain Barton recognised the role that nurses can play to relieve pressure on the system, by providing primary healthcare. He piloted Unjani using shipping containers as clinics with support from his company, Imperial Health Sciences. The story of Unjani is therefore one of startup and sustainable growth, partnership and building independent, self-sustaining social enterprises in a franchising system. The theory explored includes the importance of context, the role of market failure in spotting opportunity, developing opportunity through effectuation, defining social entrepreneurship and funding and growing the organisation. Expected learning outcomes The teaching objectives are framed by Mair (2010) who finds that where social entrepreneurs operate affects what they do and how they do it. Objective 1: Explores the influence of context on social entrepreneurship helping students frame a definition of social entrepreneurship. Objective 2: Students are able to connect the theory of market failure to opportunity identification and effectuation for social entrepreneurs. Objective 3: Students apply the definition of social entrepreneurship based on Santos’ (2010) Positive Theory. Objective 4: Students will be able to apply knowledge of social franchising models, as an approach to scaling. Objective 5: Students understand the principles of resource dependency theory and are able to use the funding spectrum as a tool to identify funding types. Supplementary materials Links to two videos are provided in the case. Recommendations are also made for materials to be used in the class, e.g. Global Competitiveness Index and Gapminder World, which are excellent tools to demonstrate the social and economic growth divide. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
William Durbin

<p>How we live our lives here in New Zealand affects others who are distant from us. We live in a world with many networks across space, which connect people with radically different lifestyles. These connections create an avenue to respond to the poverty of these ‘distant others’. One such network of connections is the coffee industry. Ethical consumption and social entrepreneurship within the coffee industry are a means to address development issues, and ultimately poverty. This research will look into coffee social enterprises, and how they can be included in a post-development theoretical framework. In particular, it will discuss the motivations of social entrepreneurs involved in the coffee companies interviewed.  Post-development provides a theoretical framework for this research of coffee social enterprises. It provides a critique to mainstream development, and has questioned how development is done, as well as its very validity. In doing so, it has encouraged new ways of ‘doing development’. One example of this is Sally Matthews’ three responses the wealthy can have to poverty: first, re-thinking of the development discourse in light of post-development; secondly, supporting popular initiatives; and thirdly, solidarity with distant others here at home.  This is an appreciative inquiry into different coffee companies, using qualitative ethnographic methods. Seven in-depth interviews have been conducted with managers, past owners or head roasters, as well as one with an expert on social enterprise.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony KOLA-OLUSANYA

As soon as decision makers are expected to make differences towards sustainable future, young adults’ ability to make informed and sound decisions is considered essential towards securing our planet. This study provides an insight into young adults’ knowledge of key environment and sustainability issues. To answer the key research questions, data were obtained using a qualitative phenomenographic research approach and collected through 18 face-to-face in-depth interviews with research participants. The findings of this study suggest that young adults lived experiences that play a huge role in their level of awareness of topical environmental and sustainability issues critical to humanity’s future on earth. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bechir Fridhi

AbstractThis article aims to understand the extent to which social entrepreneurship (SE) contributes to the construction of a collective dimension linked to social innovation (SI). We aim to propose new ideas that can deliver insights into the SE phenomenon. This research is also distinct from entrepreneurial ecosystems as its development already requires some successful entrepreneurial action and to do it, the structuring and consolidation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem constitutes a real challenge for the development of SI.This work has been based on a participant observation of eight major events dedicated to social entrepreneurship or the shared economy. In-depth interviews with Tunisian social entrepreneurs were also conducted in order to enrich our corpus. The results show the necessary cooperation of social entrepreneurs for a sustainable and responsible social innovation. Indeed, the analysis emphasizes that the viability and sustainability of a social innovation rests essentially on a collective construction, beyond common social values.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1137-1154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziene Mottiar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations of social entrepreneurs. It explores the case of the Gathering in Ireland in 2013, when against a backdrop of recession, the national Government encouraged individuals and communities to organize events and invite the Diaspora to visit Ireland as a way of helping the country to revitalize. Some 5,000 events took place across the country during the year, and this paper examines this in the context of social entrepreneurship. Three research questions are posed: Who were these tourism and social entrepreneurs who organized events as a result of the Gathering? What motivated them to engage in these activities? Will this social entrepreneurship activity be maintained beyond 2013 and how has it been impacted by the Gathering? Design/methodology/approach The empirical research was conducted in two counties in Ireland, Co. Kerry and Co. Westmeath. The research tools used were key informant interviews, a survey of event organizers and focus groups. Findings Key findings show that the Gathering has resulted in the emergence of new social entrepreneurs, but it has also had a positive impact on those who had run their events before, as it made them be more strategic in the way they planned and ran their event and also resulted in them thinking about these events in terms of tourists rather than just the local community. They also developed new skills which will aid their future development. It is clear that social entrepreneurs can play a fundamental role in the development of tourism destinations, and this is an important topic for researchers in tourism to be concerned about. Originality/value The originality of this paper lies in the fact that it addresses the issue of motivation of social entrepreneurs and challenges us to think more about how these types of entrepreneurs identify the problem that they will address. Furthermore, this case shows that the motivation for such action can be prompted by a national strategy, rather than as the literature heretofore represented it as an innate motivation that materialized and developed within particular individuals.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Raihan Che Nawi ◽  
Mohd Mursyid Arshad ◽  
Steven Eric Krauss ◽  
Ismi Arif Ismail

Purpose The practice of social entrepreneurship has grown rapidly around the world, including in Malaysia where it is still considered to be at an early stage. Nevertheless, little is known about the career transition among youth who choose careers as social entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to explore the challenges faced by youth social entrepreneurs who run social enterprises in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach This study used a qualitative approach to collect and analyse data to answer the research questions. Seven youth social entrepreneurs were interviewed until data saturation was met. An interview guide was created for the purposes of conducting the interviews. The interviews were recorded using a voice recorder. Data were transcribed verbatim and grouped in order to identify the codings, categories and themes. Findings The findings show the career transition to become a social entrepreneur, as well as the major challenges that youth social entrepreneurs face, which include acclimatising to the life and career of a social entrepreneur and not getting support from family. Practical implications The study findings are also significant for presenting valuable data on the experience of the developing social entrepreneur. The qualitative nature of the study provides valuable experiential insight into the lives and struggles of young social entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The findings will allow local authorities and social entrepreneurship regulatory agencies to design initiatives and plan actions intended to overcome the challenges. Originality/value This study makes an original contribution by showing that the process of career development as a social entrepreneur has given meaning to the informants. Despite presenting many challenges, social entrepreneurship has reinforced the role of youth social entrepreneurs, especially in relation to social responsibility.


Author(s):  
Ayob Noorseha

Social entrepreneurs are viewed as having the abilities to combat social and economic problems in which government, businesses, and non-profits may not be able to solve the problems alone. Consequently, with the collaboration among these sectors, more social enterprises can be established to create social values and development in a nation, specifically among the emerging economies. Therefore, it is timely to investigate what motivates undergraduates to develop social entrepreneurial intention. Drawing from the entrepreneurial models of Shapero and Sokol (1982) and Kruger and Brazeal (1994), this study aims to examine the social entrepreneurial intention among undergraduates from the perspective of an emerging economy. The proposed conceptual model differs from the existing entrepreneurial intention studies by adding the concepts of empathy and social entrepreneurship exposure as the antecedents to perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of social enterprising start-up, which in turn link to social entrepreneurial intention. Using the quota sampling technique, data were collected from 257 business and economics undergraduates from both public and private higher education institutions in Malaysia. The survey instrument was adapted from prior related studies, for instance, Davis (1983) for empathy; Shapero and Sokol (1982) for social entrepreneurship exposure; Krueger (1993) for perceived desirability and perceived feasibility; and Chen et al. (1998) for social entrepreneurial intention. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships in the proposed conceptual framework. It is hoped that the findings of this study will shed light on the existing literature of social entrepreneurship, specifically the social entrepreneurial intention studies from the emerging economies perspective.    


Author(s):  
Nuray Atsan

This chapter focuses on the linkage between social networks and social entrepreneurship and argues that social networks are crucial in social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs rely on different compositions of social networks in different stages of the entrepreneurial process. Drawing from network approach in entrepreneurship, this chapter continues by exploring the theoretical framework including conceptualizations of social entrepreneurship and social networks. It then introduces evolution of social networks in comply with organizational growth process. As a result, the chapter discusses utilizing social networks in social entrepreneurship. The conclusion reflects on possible characteristics of network usage and composition through the life cycle of social enterprises.


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