The Role of the Social Entrepreneur

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Sheerman

In Notes from the Front, practising entrepreneurs offer personal perspectives on significant issues in the light of their own business experience. This issue's author is Barry Sheerman, a UK Member of Parliament for Huddersfield since 1983. Currently, he is Joint Chair of the Education and Employment Select Committee, Chairman of Networking for Industry Ltd, Co-Chairman of the Parliamentary Manufacturing Industry Group, and Secretary of the Parliamentary Sustainable Waste Group. Formerly, he was the Opposition front bench spokesman on Education, Employment, Home Affairs and Disability. In this article he reflects on the concept of social entrepreneurship, and discusses the establishment of Urban Mines Limited, a not-for-profit environmental organization concerned with the development of practical approaches to sustainable waste management.

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
IDIT WEISS-GAL ◽  
JOHN GAL

AbstractThis article offers an empirical analysis of the role of social workers as policy actors in parliamentary committees. Based on an initial finding that social workers participated in 14 per cent of all the deliberations of parliamentary committees in the Israeli parliament, the article examines the actual inputs of these social workers in the committee discussions. In order to examine the inputs of social workers in these committees and to identify the links between organisational affiliation and committee type and the inputs, the study provides a close analysis of the recorded minutes of three parliamentary committees. It reveals that social workers tended to facilitate and enrich the social policy formulation process. However social workers, particularly those employed by not-for-profit organisations, also challenged policy makers and placed matters on the agendas of committees. The findings of the study show that social workers are policy actors who offer diverse inputs into a complex policy formulation process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Wells

Purpose – There is a widely held stereotypical view that accounting is structured, precise, compliance-driven and repetitive. Drawing on social psychology theory, this paper aims to examine how accountants may contribute to these stereotypical perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – Individual perception data were collected through questionnaires and interviews with accountants from the corporate, public practice and not-for-profit sectors, along with “Chartered Accountants” who no longer work as accountants. Findings – These findings suggest that, contrary to results from an earlier study, the targets of the accounting stereotype contribute to the stereotype formation and maintenance and that increased exposure to accountants may serve only to confirm and reinforce the accounting stereotype. Research limitations/implications – There are a small number of participants in this study, and this limits the ability to generalise the findings. Practical implications – These findings have important implications for the profession in how it communicates and promotes the role of the accountant in society. Failure to address the issues identified may lead the stereotype to become self-fulfilling. This may result in the recruitment of future accountants who lack the required skills and capabilities. This could lead to the loss of non-compliance-related accounting work to other business professionals. Originality/value – This study responds to criticism that little is known about how and why the accounting stereotype is formed and how contact with an accountant may increase stereotypicality. Additionally, this paper proposes a strategy to reduce stereotypicality through contact with accountants.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 671-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desireé Gaillard ◽  
Kate Hughes

AbstractThis research is a pilot study on identifying the social initiatives that could potentially provide employment opportunities for female Sudanese refugees settled in western Sydney, Australia. An interpretative ethnographic approach was employed to analyse academic literature, government information and data gathered through in-depth interviews with a not-for-profit organisation working with this community. The outcome of this research emphasises three fundamental questions that relate to community value, customer need and opportunity risk that need to be considered with respect to the limitations that are framed by the social initiatives identified in relation to reducing unemployment for these women. This study revealed an interesting observation: programs that make use of existing skills create new opportunities in the employment market, whereas programmes that provide new skills or a combination of new and existing skills, were more inclined to link to existing opportunities in the employment market.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Dao Truong

Purpose Although the social marketing field has developed relatively quickly, little is known about the careers of students who chose social marketing as their main subject of study. Such research is important not only because it reveals employment trends and mobility but also because it informs policy making with respect to curriculum development as well as raises governmental and societal interest in the social marketing field. This paper aims to analyse the career pathways of doctoral graduates who examined social marketing as the subject of their theses. Doctoral graduates represent a special group in a knowledge economy, who are considered the best qualified for the creation and dissemination of knowledge and innovation. Design/methodology/approach A search strategy identified 209 doctoral-level social marketing theses completed between 1971 and 2015. A survey was then delivered to dissertation authors, which received 117 valid responses. Findings Results indicate that upon graduation, most graduates secured full-time jobs, where about 66 per cent worked in higher education, whereas the others worked in the government, not-for-profit and private sectors. Currently, there is a slight decline in the number of graduates employed in the higher education, government and not-for-profit sectors but an increase in self-employed graduates. A majority of graduates are working in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. Overall, levels of international mobility and research collaboration are relatively low. Originality/value This is arguably the first study to examine the career paths of social marketing doctoral graduates.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
Mayo Fuster Morell

In order for online communities to assemble and grow, some basic infrastructure is necessary that makes possible the aggregation of the collective action. There is a very intimate and complex relationship between the technological infrastructure and the social character of the community which uses it. Today, most infrastructure is provided by corporations and the contrast between community and corporate dynamics is becoming increasingly pronounced. But rather than address the issues, the corporations are actively obfuscating it. Wikiwashing refers to a strategy of corporate infrastructure providers where practices associated to their role of profit seeking corporations (such as abusive terms of use, privacy violation, censorship, and use of voluntary work for profit purposes, among others) that would be seen as unethical by the communities they enable are concealed by promoting a misleading image of themselves associated with the general values of wikis and Wikipedia (such as sharing and collaboration, openness and transparency). The empirical analysis is based on case studies (Facebook , Yahoo! and Google) and triangulation of several methods.


Author(s):  
Angela Besana

After having discussed the contemporary importance of the not-for-profit and social economy, the chapter builds on a cluster analysis of performances and roles of grant-making foundations, who are the essential node of the cooperation and coopetitiveness, today. This chapter aims to present worldwide grant-making foundations for their performances and profiling according to the latest accounting data and mission reports, which collect results of their projects according to the classification of pure grant-making, networking, leadership, partnership and pooling. With this in mind, the chapter adopts a typical approach of cluster analysis of industrial organization. The cluster analysis emphasizes the profiling of the sample and it allows to separate groups with significant features. The main focus remains on the issues of the finance of the social economy, when the Public Welfare State is too much indebted. Complementary and substitute roles of the Private Welfare State can emerge for the support the not-for-profit economy.


Author(s):  
Teresa Dieguez ◽  
Oscarina Conceição ◽  
Ângela Fernandes

The Private Institutions of Social Solidarity (IPSS) are constituted as not-for-profit with the purpose of giving organized expression to the moral duty of solidarity and justice among individuals by private initiative. IPSS helps children, young people and families support social and community integration, assist the elderly and disabled, promote and safeguard health, education and vocational training and resolve housing problems. This study focused on the answers offered to the elderly people, specifically through the service provided on the Social Centers. We tried to analyze existing practices, identify good practices and understand their frequency, while understanding the open-mindedness level to change and innovation. As research methodology we conducted surveys among users and technicians. The study concluded that communication is always present between the different institutions even if in different levels. Networking and good practices customized accordingly to the users keep them satisfied and more active in their daily life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan C Clift

In the context of social welfare austerity and non-state actors’ interventions into social life, an urban not-for-profit organization in the United States, Back on My Feet, uses the practice of running to engage those recovering from homelessness. Promoting messages of self-sufficiency, the organization centralizes the body as a site of investment and transformation. Doing so calls to the fore the social construction of ‘the homeless body’ and ‘the running body’. Within this ethnographic inquiry, participants in recovery who ran with the organization constructed moralized senses of self in relation to volunteers, organizers, and those who do not run, while in recovery. Their experiences compel consideration of how bodily constructions and practices reproduce morally underpinned, self-oriented associations with homeless and neoliberal discourses that obfuscate systemic causes of homelessness, pose challenges for well-intentioned voluntary or development organizations, and service the relief of the state from social responsibility.


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