Social entrepreneurship is a business that seeks to go beyond being income-driven to also becoming socially relevant through addressing societal problems. They either provide services or produce goods according to their social objectives, like TOMS Shoes in the case study (Neck, 2017). It operated a “Buy One Give One” model that allows donating a pair of shoes to impoverished countries for every bought pair of shoes (Neck, 2017). This approach has its undoubted advantages and disadvantages as a business and social strategy that are essential to recognize to make responsible business decisions. I believe that the produced positive and negative effects should be taken into account, with entrepreneurs being held responsible for their impact on society. Such a point of view allows social entrepreneurs to take more active control of the problem, especially if the effect of entrepreneurs trying to solve the problem is more detrimental than its absence.
From first sight, every attempt to produce a change in the world for good is an exemplary move from the business owners. It allows entrepreneurs to impact society and attract attention to the campaign and the brand itself (Neck, 2017). Everyone seems to win – the entrepreneur gets additional money and attention from the social campaign supporters, and the poor populations get free products. However, the problem lies deeper when the result of the attempts to solve the problem only increases it. In the conditions of lack of money, free supplies can help as a temporary solution, but not as an answer to the root-cause problem. The growing expectancy of free production and forming the attitude of dependence only deepen the vicious circle of poverty, which entrepreneurs should be responsible for. The attempts to solve the problem should calculate the risks and measure the effects to carefully implement the campaign to actually show care for societal problems.
Reference
Neck, H. M., Neck, C. P., & Murray, E. L. (2017). In Entrepreneurship: The practice and mindset. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd.