1. Fredrik Björk, Malmö University

2. Fredrik Björk
 Started International Master’s
Programme Leadership for Sustainability
(focus on social entrepreneurship and
social innovation)
 Forum for Social Innovation (Sweden) –
responsible for covering research on
social innovation
 Teacher in Environmental Science

3. What Is Entrepreneurship?
‘Creating value by bringing together resources
to exploit an opportunity’

4. Entrepreneurs
 The function of entrepreneurs is to reform or
revolutionize the patterns of production… By
exploiting an invention or… an untried technological
possibility…
Joseph Schumpeter
 The entrepreneur always searches for change,
responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.
Peter Drucker

5. And Social Entrepreneurship?
 Creating social and/or ecological value
 Social entrepreneurship is not a new phenomenon
 Individuals and groups have been addressing
social and ecological issues for centuries

7. Creating value
 Creating social and/or ecological value is the
success factor in social entrepreneurship
 What about the financial return?
 If there is no surplus, it will be a short-lived
organization….
 So – the organization has to have a
sustainable flow of resources
 Because – to create social and ecological
values you need long-term commitment

8. Why social entrepreneurship?
 The public sector and the
business sector have
obviously been unable to
handle the social and
ecological challenges that
communities all over the
world are facing
 Social entrepreneurship
should be seen as a
complement

9. Public sector
Business Civil society

10. Social Entrepreneurship
 Social entrepreneurship implies challenging
sector boundaries – and cross-sector
collaboration
NGOs with business approaches
Social purpose business ventures
Public sector and civil society partnerships
Cross-sector projects

11. Components of social
entrepreneurship
 Entrepreneurs
 Innovations
 Oppurtunities/needs
 Organizations

12. The social entrepreneurs
 The focus have often been on the lone,
’heroic’ entrepreneur
 But there are also examples of
collaborative start-ups in social
entrepreneurship
 Citizens, users, visionaries, neighbours,
clients and patients – or just a couple of
friends – become entrepreneurs!

13. The social innovations
 New ways of addressing social and/or
ecological challenges
 Often challenge existing welfare
systems or notions of how society
should be structured

14. Oppurtunities and needs
 Social entrepreneurship is in general
more driven by the ambition to satisfy
pressing needs that business or the
public are unable (or not interested) to
meet

15. Organizations
 Associations, foundations, cooperatives,
open networks… No form of
organization is disqualified
 Control and ownership are crucial
questions (not least in collaborative
ventures)
 Intrapreneurship is not uncommon
 Resources are often a mix of financial
and social capital

16. EXAMPLES
Baisikeli (Copenhagen)
 ” When people in poverty become more
mobile, they get an opportunity to create
a better life - a life with access to
healthcare, education and higher
earnings. Baisikeli is a social enterprise
in Denmark that manufactures, sells,
repairs and rents bicycles for both
residential and business, in order to fund
more and larger African projects and
transfer of Danish expertise.”

17. EXAMPLES
Apokalyps Labotek (Malmö)
 ” The work of Apokalyps Labotek is often
related to issues concerning consumption,
production and strategic development. The
aim is to generate more knowledge and
discussion in combination with fabrication
and production of sustainable alternatives.
In short, we think, know, do and make. Self-
commissioned projects run parallel with
collaborations with companies, institutions
and people.”

18. EXAMPLES
Specialisterne (Denmark)
 ” The majority of the employees in Specialisterne
have a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, and work
as consultants on tasks such as software testing,
programming and data-entry for the corporate
sector.
At Specialisterne, people with autism work in an
environment where they are presented with the best
possible opportunities to reach their potential. They
don’t have to learn to adapt to the usual working-
environment norms, such as being a good team
player, being empathetic, handling stress well and
showing flexibility… Putting it simply; at
Specialisterne, not fitting in is a good thing. The traits
that usually exclude people with autism from the
labour market are the very traits that make
them valuable employees.”

19. Challenges
 Need to develop support strucutures –
local, national, international
 Resist being pictured as ’nice people
doing good’ – then social
entrepreneurship becomes irrelevant.
Social entrepreneurs are change
agents!

20. The role of Academia?
 Develop education – training in SE & SI
 Better (more systematic) research
 Develop a culture of collaboration with
different stakeholders
 Offer a critical perspective
 Build and develop international
collaboration within education and
research