The making and breaking of social entrepreneurs

Usha Chaudhary

doi:10.17918/00001246

Humanity is on the path to extinction. Many notable scientists and scholars have made such predictions, including the prognosis that the people who are alive today may be one of the last generations of the human species on Earth. Whether this extinction is due to natural causes or self-inflicted by human beings, it is an undeniable fact that societal problems in areas such as climate change, healthcare and global pandemic, poverty and hunger, social justice and equality, crime and violence, and financial and political corruption are continuing to multiply and escalate on a global scale. Unfortunately, the public and private sectors have not addressed these problems adequately, making the need for social entrepreneurs even more acute. Further, less than 50% of new social enterprises in the United States survive past three years, and less than 10% survive past six years, due primarily to the lack of financial resources, advocacy, and governance (Gasca, 2017). Therefore, we need to incubate, support, and retain more social entrepreneurs to solve these and other social issues at the local, national, and global levels. My research identifies the factors that lead to the creation and incubation of social entrepreneurs as well as factors that drive their exit from social entrepreneurship. The results also highlight the many competing and contradictory tensions and challenges social entrepreneurs must balance during the launch and operating phases of their enterprise as well as the coping mechanisms they must deploy to both respond to and survive in facing these inherent tensions and challenges. My results also provide a typology of the unique characteristics and attributes that successful social entrepreneurs possess that enables them to survive and thrive in challenging environments. Through my study, I hope to further advance the research in the field of social entrepreneurship, including the life cycle of a social entrepreneur. My findings can also be applied to increase the incubation and retention of social entrepreneurs in the social sector and boost the success rate of social enterprises by providing insights into how social entrepreneurs can manage and mitigate the tensions and barriers they encounter in launching and operating their social enterprises.

The making and breaking of social entrepreneurs

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The making and breaking of social entrepreneurs

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