Social e-Entrepreneurship, Employment, and e-Learning

Social entrepreneurship is the demonstration of entrepreneurial behavior aimed to meet the requirements of the society, rather than generating profit, bearing economic risks, providing innovative opportunities, having a social goal and value and for social benefits, and members are comprised of volunteering individuals and groups. Social entrepreneurs serve in a wide range of areas. Employment is among the most significant of these. The labor market policies implemented to increase employment also include education. Education is the power that allows rearing well-rounded and conscious citizens and building interdependent and participatory societies. The rapid changes in the communications and information technologies sectors today have also influenced the educational sciences. In this chapter, the social and economic benefits provided by the utilization of the e-learning programs in the trainings provided by the social entrepreneur organizations, aimed to generate employment, are discussed.

Telework as a Driver of the Third Sector and its Networks

This chapter examines the role of telework as a driving force behind third sector activities and in the creation of networks and links between organizations in that sector. Telework as a tool has generated considerable change in the traditional organization of work. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to respond more quickly to customer requirements and to users and beneficiaries of third sector and social economy organizations. Online connections and services provided by telework have also led to a greater density of contacts between organizations in the third sector, which promotes the transmission of information and collaborative practices in providing services to the public.

Business Intelligence Tools for Social e-Enterprises

Social enterprises can tackle a wide range of social and environmental issues and contribute to economic growth but they also benefit people and the planet. However, social enterprises face particular difficulties, in order to be financial sustainable and get their social mission accomplished in a global world. In recent time, technology applications in different fields, especially Business Intelligence (BI), have been developed rapidly and considered to be one of the most significant uses of information technology. BI is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. This represents a tremendous competitive advantage that allows achieving and exploring the collective intelligence of the organization, enabling contextual, agile, and simplified information exchange and collaboration among distributed stakeholders and networks of partners. Despite these advantages, the organizations applying such systems may also encounter problems in decision-making process because of the highly diversified interactions within the systems. Hence, the choice of a suitable BI platform for social enterprises is important to take the great advantage of using information technology in all organizational fields. This chapter aims at addressing the problems existed in the social e-enterprises, describing and evaluating the major open source BI tools that can have strong impact on social enterprise change and development.

Social and Solidarity Economy Web Information Systems

This chapter presents the state-of-the-art on interoperability developments for the social and solidarity economy web based information systems. A search on the bibliographic databases showed that there are no articles on interoperability initiatives on the social and solidarity economy, so it was necessary to have other sources of information: a preliminary analysis of the platforms that support social and solidarity economy activities; and interviews with the representatives of some of the world’s most important social and solidarity economy organizations. The study showed that the platforms are still not interoperable, but that there are efforts in this direction promoted by the social and solidarity economy organizations. It is clear that these organizations will need to find a common framework of understanding in order to implement interoperability among their platforms.

ICT and Agricultural Cooperatives

New technologies in information and communication technology are significantly impacting traditional business models, demonstrating how the relationship between the company and its corresponding value chain is changing in recent years due to the new possibilities they offer. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the current situation of Internet usage and electronic commerce in agri-food cooperatives in the province of Lleida, Spain. To this end, a questionnaire was completed by olive oil and sweet fruit cooperatives in 2010 that addressed the following aspects: computer equipment, Internet connection and presence, and finally, the level of electronic commerce. The results provide information on aspects to consider for ensuring that agricultural cooperatives take full advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies, resulting in a useful tool for the managers of these organizations as well as for policy makers concerned with encouraging and promoting the social economy.

The Role of ICT in Supporting Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship

Millions of people around the world live in other countries than their countries of origin. In many developing countries, remittances sent home by migrants are a vital part of the economy. Transnational entrepreneurial activities by migrant entrepreneurs, also called diaspora entrepreneurs, involving resources from both the home and the host countries, can contribute to socio-economic value creation of both countries. ICT solutions can play an important role in facilitating and supporting such entrepreneurial activities. This chapter outlines the relevant context of migration, remittances, transnational diaspora entrepreneurship, and innovation systems, and discusses prerequisites and challenges of such ICT solutions.

Capacity Building for Different Abilities Using ICT

Social enterprises are expected to contribute to the well-being of society. One way this is done is through assisting individuals to become productive citizens. For those enterprises that work with individuals with disabilities, this is accomplished through education and assistance with various daily tasks. The disability population is increasing as the population ages and faces an increased potential for disability through disease and biological events as well as higher rates of diagnosis of developmental disability throughout the life span. When coupled with the increasing integration of individuals with disabilities into the community, there is a greater need for ways by which these individuals are included and supported. While technology is prevalent in today’s society, there is little training for those working with clients and little money to purchase the technology, leading to limited access. With few purchasers, little effort is expended to enhance the accessibility of existing technology and create more productive forms of technology. To decrease the costs to society, the role of social enterprises might research the necessary technology to further develop and facilitate the engagement of individuals with disabilities into society.

ICT

This chapter highlights the use of ICT as a resource for making do with what is on hand (bricolage) in social entrepreneurship. A growing proportion of social entrepreneurs are starting in fundamentally resource-constrained yet dynamic and uncertain environments. This chapter investigates the role of ICT as a bricolagable resource that provides malleability and scalability for social entrepreneurship. However, findings suggest that implementing ICT alone is a resource model set for failure. Such a tactic ignores the need for co-evolution with complementary human capital of the entrepreneur(s). These insights are valuable not only for the building of social entrepreneurship ventures, but more broadly for resource-constrained firms in dynamic and uncertain environments that are required to leverage resources for competitive advantage.

Technology Integration in Strategic Management

The micro-financing sector is considered as one of the most important environments contributing to poverty reduction and to the creation of new small and medium enterprises, thus creating new value for high economic performance. Also, in the actual digital environment, each organization tends to use information and communication technologies for the optimization of the work activities and processes of collaboration. So, the main objective of this book chapter is to demonstrate the important role of technology integration in the micro-financing sector strategic management. Through a case study related to a strategic network of micro-financing institutions that develop and integrate technologies in their strategic management, the most important pillars of social value creation of information and communication technologies are identified in this chapter. Furthermore, the results of the research demonstrate the impact of IT integration in the micro-financing sector and derive a theory and a methodology for the development of IT integration and usage in this sector.

The Effects of ICT on Sports Fan Management

This contribution studies the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the fan engagement process and the role ITC can play in enabling the reconfiguration of a sports organization. This approach combines social enterprise, sports context, and ICT theories in discussing the concepts of fan quantity, feedback, and involvement. The study highlights the value of fans as relevant stakeholders in sports organizations and as key players in the creation of value. Sport organizations as social enterprises simultaneously seek sporting, economic as well as social results. ICT can increase the value of fans as assets, reinforcing the integration of these three forms of results. Three emblematic case histories describe and exemplify the theoretical argument presented in this chapter and offer stimuli for the discussion of both theoretical and managerial implications.