Social Entrepreneurship & Government: A New Breed of Entrepreneurs Developing Solutions to Social Problems
From The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President
The Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Advocacy
By Andrew M. Wolk
Root Cause Founder & CEO; MIT Senior Lecturer, Social Entrepreneurship
This report offers a comprehensive introduction for city, state, and federal government officials to the field of social entrepreneurship and the work to date. It incorporates insights from experts in the field and case studies of eight successful social-entrepreneurial initiatives to address three questions:
(1) What is social entrepreneurship?
(2) How does social entrepreneurship help government benefit Americans?
(3) How is government currently supporting social-entrepreneurial initiatives?
Social Entrepreneurship and Government—Executive Summary
Social Entrepreneurship and Government—Full Chapter
The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President
“Social Entrepreneurship and Government” calls for government to adopt five goals to more strategically support social entrepreneurship, similar to the way it encouraged U.S. entrepreneurialism beginning in the 1950s.
- Encourage social innovation
- Create an enabling environment
- Scale success
- Reward initiatives for their performance
- Produce knowledge that enhances success
The new initiatives covered in the report constitute the first wave of what is likely to be a flood of new experiments in governmental support of social entrepreneurship, as that support on the local, state, and federal levels transitions from occasional, one-time support to a strategic, long-term strategy for leveraging the successes of social entrepreneurs into enduring solutions for the nation’s most pressing social problems.