1. 10th International Conference
of the International Society for
Third-Sector Research (ISTR)
at Siena University, Italy
Five Stages of Social Entrepreneurship
2012.7.13.
Yutaka Tanabe
NPM (Non Profit Management) Course,
Social Engineering,
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo Japan
yutaka.t.aa@m.titech.ac.jp
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2. Index
• Introduction and Research Question
• Literature Review
• The comparison between For-profit Entrepreneur and Social
Entrepreneur
• Methodology
• Findings
• Limitations & Conclusions
• Discussions
• References
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3. Introduction and Research Question
• Social Entrepreneurship (SE) as a field of research is a relatively
recent phenomenon (Mair, Robinson, and Hockerts 2006).
• Although SE is spreading among practitioners and researchers
around the world continuously, the stages of SE don’t seem to be
defined yet.
• Some successful social entrepreneurs like Muhammad Yunus
create a fundamental change in society (Bangladesh), but others
stay with little result and financial difficulty on a self-employed
scale.
• Concept of stages of SE would indicate success factors for
practitioners and researchers to find opportunity to tackle social
issue, to develop social enterprise from individual-scale to
society-scale, and to realize a sustainable society.
• The research question would be to define five stages of social
entrepreneurship, and to research its effect to SE development.
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4. Literature Review
1. Non-profit perspective
• Creating value and assessing performance -> Growing and
exploring new directions (Dees, Emerson, and Economy 2002).
• Mission Statement & Opportunity -> Innovation -> Product/
Services & Relations -> Business Model Definition -> Social
Outcomes -> Social Transformation (Perrini and Vurro 2006).
• Opportunity identification -> Opportunity Evaluation &
Exploration -> Opportunity pursuit (Robinson 2006).
2. Entrepreneurial perspective
• Eckhardt and Shane clarified the role of opportunities in the
entrepreneurial process (2003).
• Moroz and Hindle demonstrated that there is an urgent need
to synthesize what can be taken from the extant body of
entrepreneurial process models as one component of a
concerted attempt to derive and test what might be called a
“harmonizing” model of entrepreneurial process rather than a
“unifying” model (2011).
Overall, we can assume social entrepreneurial processes
defined by these authors can be improved more to explore
key success factors by mission-driven approach. 4
5. The comparison between For-profit
Entrepreneur and Social Entrepreneur
Source of Top priority of
Motivation the enterprise
For-profit
Maximizing Profit
Entrepreneur
Profit (If it can pay tax, then
it is good for society.)
Social Social Solving
Entrepreneur Issue Social Issue
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6. Methodology
- 5 Stages of Social Entrepreneurship Model -
• Social mission creates opportunity to solve social
issue and economic value.
• Size of Social Entrepreneurship (SE) activity
(opportunity) grows according to stages.
Contribute
to
Individualized Organized Socialized
Opportunity Sustainability
Activity Activity Activity
of
Society
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7. Case Study from Ashoka DataBase
- NPO Teach for America -
• Social Entrepreneur: Ms. Wendy Kopp
• Field of work: Education
• Social Issue: Education gap
• Mission: “One day, all children in the U.S. have the
opportunity to attain an excellent education.”
• Business Model: TFA gathers donation from donors/
foundation, then, sends TFA teachers to public schools in
poverty area in US. They teach at least 2 years. Budget:
$143M in 2009 (Source: Ashoka Fellows Database).
• Operation: “Best of the best” recruiting, fundraising, IT
investment, training, and reporting, etc.
• Ranked #1 of “America’s Ideal Employers” in 2010 (#3 in
2012), surpassing Google, Apple, and Microsoft. (Source:
UNIVERSUM, http://www.universumglobal.com/US-
Undergraduate-Rankings)
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8. Methods for Data Collection
• Checking Ashoka Fellows Database
• Interviews in 2 TFA schools and HQ
• On-site observations
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9. (1) Opportunity
• Opportunity is to recognize social issue and to start
social entrepreneurship. Mission creates opportunity.
• TFA Case: “The moment that opened her eyes, she
says, was when she witnessed her undergraduate
roommate from the Bronx struggling with the
academic pace of the college despite being “brilliant,”
while their next door neighbors who had attended
prep schools were calling Princeton a “cakewalk.””
(Ashoka, http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/wendy-kopp )
Success Factors: She/he will start volunteering or
small business to make it happen with strong will.
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10. Mission expansion for Social Change
(TFA case)
Society
(Culture, Industry,
Policy Sector)
Citizens / Corporations
which collaborates with TFA
Supporters / Alumni of
TFA
NPO (TFA)
Social
Mission
by Wendy
Kopp
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11. (2) Individualized Activity
• Social entrepreneurship activity by a person. Because it is
a small personalized activity, it is difficult to spread
rapidly. Social business opportunity is also for an
individual; the wage, eventually sustainability, is low.
• TFA case: “She developed the concept as her thesis, and
despite little reaction from others, felt that the idea was
so important that she kept pursuing it.” (Ashoka)
Success Factors: Pursuing team-building / alliance, Utilizing
management resources (money, person, etc.) by strategy
and leadership.
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12. (3) Organized Activity
• Social entrepreneurship activity is organized because of team
building / alliance. It starts to spread rapidly with right staffs.
Social Business Opportunity gets bigger; right people hired,
trained, and Human Resource / Fundraising Strategy executed.
• TFA Case: “Teach For America teachers go through a rigorous
recruiting process, and if selected, participate in a summer-long
training program after which they are placed in some of
America’s poorest schools and perform two years of teaching
service.” (Ashoka)
Success Factors: Hiring right people, Sharing mission among
organization through training, Strategy execution by
teamwork, Evaluation.
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13. (3) Organized Activity
- The Elevator hall for TFA staffs at TFA HQ -
TFA mission is always shared among staffs
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14. (3) Organized Activity
- Students in a TFA Charter School -
“2023 is the year when
these students will graduate
college. “ (a TFA staff)
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16. (4) Socialized Activity
• Social entrepreneurship activity to solve social issue with
society scale. Misson-shared people will play a key role in
society to realize the SE mission. Culture, Industry, Policy
Sector will change (Social Change).
• TFA Case: “Approximately 65 percent of Teach For America’s
participants decide to remain teachers or move on to become
principals, school board members, or education sector planners
and public policymakers... the majority of alumni, such as
Michelle Rhee, the Chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, are
staying in education, many of them taking dramatic steps to
transform the education system.” (Ashoka)
Success Factor: Social Impact (culture / industry / policy
change), Evaluation
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17. (4) Socialized Activity
- Mission Expansion among Society -
• Alumni of SE have a crucial role as those of
McKinsey do.
• Alumni who hold and cherish the SE’s mission,
then she/he will expand it among society.
“The 100 Most
Influential People
in the
World” (TIME)
Mr. Kevin Huffman Mr. Bill Draiton
Ms. Cami Anderson Ms. Kanoko Ohishi
(Tennessee State Education (Founder & CEO, Ashoka)
（Social Entrepreneur） (CEO of MEDIVA, Japan)
Commissioner)
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18. (5) Sustainability
• Contribute to Sustainability of Society (Industry, Culture,
Policy-making): Socialized Activity creates outcome to solve
the social issue and contribute to fix our society.
• TFA Case: “(Teach for All) works to support the
development of Teach For America’s model around the world
by increasing and accelerating the impact of independent
social enterprises that enlist their nation’s most promising
future leaders in addressing educational need.” (Ashoka)
• Success Factor: Mission-driven operation with leadership,
Hiring right people, Policy-making, Evaluation
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19. Findings
(a) Mission make it possible to grow SE from
individualized activity to well-organized, and
socialized activity.
(b) Alliance with (local) government or policy
proposal facilitates SE to be a socialized activity.
(c) The domain of public sector, private sector, and
citizen sector will be integrated in the future.
Social Entrepreneurs are nothing special then. All
jobs will pursue common good.
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20. Limitations & Conclusions
• Top priority is the key to define Social
Entrepreneurship as our research.
• We need to research other cases than TFA
to check the feasibility of the model of 5
stages of social entrepreneurship.
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21. Discussions
• What do you think about the comparison
between for-profit entrepreneur and social
entrepreneur?
• What do you think about the 5 stages of social
entrepreneurship for future improvement?
• What do you think about the success factors in
the stages of social entrepreneurship?
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22. References
• Dees, G. (1998). The meaning of “Social Entrepreneurship”
• Dees, G. & Anderson, B. B. (2006). Framing a theory of social entrepreneurship: building on two
schools of practice and thought
• Dees, G. Emerson, J. Economy, P.(2002). Strategic tools for social entrepreneurs. Wiley.
• Mair, J. Robinson, J. Hockerts, K. (2006). Social Entrepreneurship. Palgrave Macmillan
• Moroz, P. & Hindle, K. (2011). Entrepreneurship as a Process: Toward Harmonizing Multiple
Perspectives. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.
• Rose, S. Ackerman. (2005). Competition between non-profits and for-profits: entry and growth.
Voluntas Volume 1, Number 1, 13-25
• Kerlin, J. A. (2006). Social Enterprise in the United States and Europe: Understanding and Learning from
the Differences.Voluntas Volume 17, Number 3, 246-262
• Churchill, N. & Lewis,V. (1983). The Five Stages of Small Business Growth. Harvard Business Review.
• Bloom, P. & Dees, G. (2008). Cultivate your Ecosystem. Social Innovation Review. Stanford University.
• Sherman, D. (2005). Social Entrepreneurship: Pattern-Changing Entrepreneurs and the Scaling of Social
Impact
• Eckhardt, J. & Shane, S. (2003). Opportunities and Entrepreneurship. Journal of Management.
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