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By the end of their studies, students are expected to: undergraduate level. Learning objective 1: Describe the concept of social entrepreneurship. Learning objective 2: Explain the sources and challenges of funding social entrepreneurial activities. Learning objective 3: Discuss the different strategies that social entrepreneurs may use to raise funds. Postgraduate level. Learning Objective 1: Use theory to explain the concept of social entrepreneurship. Learning objective 2: Discuss the role of social capital in facilitating resource acquisition for social entrepreneurial activities. Learning objective 3: Evaluate the current action for fundamental change and development (AFFCAD) funding model and propose strategies that may be used by a social enterprise to achieve financial sustainability when donor funding expires.

The past decade has seen the emergence of many social enterprises from disadvantaged communities in low-income countries, seeking to provide solutions to social problems, which in developed countries would normally be addressed by government sponsored welfare programmes. The social entrepreneurs behind such initiatives are typically drawn from the disadvantaged communities they serve. They are often young people committed to improving the lives of their most disadvantaged community members. Being poor themselves and located in the poorest communities, establishing their enterprise faces fundamental challenges of obtaining resources and if accessed, sustaining the flow of resources to continue and grow their enterprise. Targeting external donors and mobilizing social resources within their community is a typical route to get their enterprise off the ground, but sustaining momentum when donor funding ceases requires changes of strategy and management. How are young social entrepreneurs dealing with these challenges? The case focusses on AFFCAD, a social enterprise founded by Mohammed Kisirisa and his three friends to support poor people in Bwaise, the largest slum in Kampala city. It illustrates how, like many other similar social enterprise teams, the AFFCAD team struggled to establish itself and its continuing difficulties in trying to financially sustain its activities. The case demonstrates how the youngsters mobilised social networks and collective action to gain access to donor funding and how they are modifying this strategy as donor funding expires. From an academic perspective, a positive theory of social entrepreneurship (Santos, 2012) is applied to create an understanding of the concept of social entrepreneurship. The case uses the social capital theory to demonstrate the role played by social ties in enabling social entrepreneurs to access financial and non-financial support in a resource scarce context (Bourdieu, 1983; Coleman, 1988, 1990). The National Council for Voluntary Organisations Income Spectrum is used as a tool to develop the options available for the AFFCAD team to sustain their activities in the absence of donor support. The case provides evidence that social entrepreneurs are not limited by an initial lack of resources especially if they create productive relationships at multiple levels in the communities where they work. However, their continued success depends on the ability to reinvent themselves by identifying ways to generate revenue to achieve their social goals.

This case study is aimed at Bachelor of Entrepreneurship students, MBA, MSc. Entrepreneurship and Masters of Social Innovation students.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship, Business Strategy.

MBA/MS.

The case discusses about Evans Wadongo, a Kenya-born engineer and social entrepreneur, and his efforts of lighting up the rural communities of Kenya through his MwangBora solar lanterns. Wadongo through his social enterprise Sustainable Development for All-Kenya (SDFA-Kenya) economically empowered women, educated children and empowered youth by creating employment opportunities for them. By 2012, SDFA-Kenya had successfully impacted the lives of 1,20,000 people, benefited more than 60 community groups and set up around 30 economic ventures.

Concept of social entrepreneurship, business model innovation, product innovation, bottom of the pyramid as a market, sustainable development, triple bottom line.

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This case will help students to analyse and develop insights into the concepts of servant leadership; to analyse and develop insights into women’s empowerment and a process to achieve such empowerment; and to explore the social business models for scaling up.

The Lakhpati Kisan programme under the aegis of Tata Trusts focussed on empowering women marginal farmers in the tribal belts in India to significantly increase their income from 2015. Ganesh Neelam, Executive Director, Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a nodal agency of Tata Trusts, advocated various livelihood options in agriculture, livestock, non-timber forest resources and water conversation. Initially, CInI faced the challenge of getting the farmers to sign up for the programme due to lack of trust. CInI facilitators educated the farmers about the purpose of the initiative and the benefits they would accrue and built trust. CInI created awareness through knowledge-sharing sessions on best practices in agriculture. They formed self-help groups of farmers for decision-making and for easy access to capital. CInI established farmer producer organisations (FPOs) to bring in a business perspective among farmers. The farmers as Board members and executives ran the FPOs like commercial organisations. CInI built capabilities to create a sustainable and autonomous ecosystem that looked impressive. But still the programme was falling short of the desired target. The farmers were so far reluctant to move forward independently. Ganesh felt that the social business model that CInI had evolved needed a re-look to achieve a significant and lasting impact on the majority of the marginal farmers in India.

The case can be used in the organisation behaviour, human resource management courses and courses on social enterprises as part of the MBA or post-graduate management programme or in executive education programmes.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

To understand social entrepreneurship and a social entrepreneur; to identify a social problem and develop a business idea; to understand the theory of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition; and to understand microfinance and its impact in the lives of the poor.

The case traces the journey of its founder Chandra Shekhar Ghosh from being a small time entrepreneur in microfinance to being the owner of a universal bank named Bandhan. Bandhan bank started its operations on August 23, 2015 with 501 branches, 2022 service center and 50 ATMs across 24 states. It had 14.3 million accounts, around 105 billion loan book and 19,500 employees. The founder of Bandhan bank, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, an Ashoka fellow had won numerous awards such as Entrepreneur with Social Impact Award by Forbes (2014), Entrepreneur of the Year by Economic Times (2014), Skoch Financial Inclusion Award (2011), Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2014) by AIMA to name a few. In 2014, Bandhan was also recognized as Global Growth Company by World Economic Forum.

The case is suitable for analysis in a MBA level course on social entrepreneurship.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Research methodology.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

At the end of the case discussion, the students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the similarities and differences between profit and non-profit organisations; discuss social entrepreneurship as a process-driven set of activities; assess the organisation-environment-opportunity fit of the dilemma facing them; analyse and resolve practical issues in developing structure and systems; diagnose organisational issues facing enterprises wishing to formalise and grow; evaluate how an organisation may achieve both social and profit objectives; and appreciate the trade-offs of adopting a profit-driven approach for social enterprises.

From her office on her farm in the Eden District of South Africa’s Western Cape province, Wendy Crane, who had for many years been involved in the conservation efforts of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR), drank in the view of the Langeberg Mountains. Her pleasure was a bit diminished by the knowledge that, like so many parts of the GCBR, this area’s environment was under threat. She was preparing for a meeting in March 2017 of the board of the non-profit company (NPC) that sought to initiate and coordinate activities that would achieve the goals of the GCBR. The NPC board members wanted the organisation to be self-sustaining when it came to core costs. To this end, the board had established Gouritz Enterprises as a social enterprise that would be responsible for profit-driven activities which would fund the NPC’s core costs. The enterprise had not yet started work in any formal way, and Crane was not sure if establishing a separate profit-driven entity was the best way of achieving the self-financing goal.

Post-graduate management diploma MBAC.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Human Resource.

The case study is relevant for students of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. This case can be used as a case in strategy (growth strategy), marketing and innovation subjects as well.

The case study revolves around Mr Harish Hande and his efforts to build a for–profit social enterprise Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) to provide electricity to poor and under–served. Harish focused on providing cheap, clean and sustainable energy sources to rural customers at bottom of the pyramid of the society. From the conception of SELCO, Harish has been on a roller–coaster ride of success and failure. Harish has used the problems as a learning ground and improved his business model successfully. But, when Harish tried to scale his operations in 2005–2006 he failed miserably. Some errors in the decision coupled with external pressure had brought SELCO to a verge of collapse. Owing to the determination of Harish and his team, SELCO was able to revive from the difficult times to generate profits again. Harish now again wants to expand but this time he would not take any chances. He wants to analyze and discuss every possible issue, he might face during his expansion plans.

The key learning aspects of this case is to understand importance and practice of talent management. The case also highlights the best practices that SELCO uses to reach its clients and provide them complete solution.

Teaching note.

Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The case is suitable for graduate (MSc, MBA) and advanced undergraduate (BSc, BAs) students and applicable for course material focusing on social entrepreneurship, social ventures, strategic management, sustainable development and emerging markets.

This case explores Nuru International, a non-profit enterprise established in 2008 with the mission to “end extreme poverty throughout the world”. Jake Harriman, the founder and CEO of NURU, together with his team are on the onset of diversifying crop offerings among Kenyan farmers in an attempt to alleviate challenges stemming from severe climatic changes and low-crop quality. As 2014 is the first year for Kenyan farmers to grow alternative crops, the Nuru team faces the challenging task of convincing farmers to embrace diversification. Additionally, as part of its proof of concept philosophy, Nuru is establishing operations in Ethiopia. There, Nuru has to identify best marketable crops and promote these among Ethiopian farmers while empowering and engaging local leaders in the process. Finally, the team is looking for financing opportunities for Nuru's entrepreneurial mission. Their funding opportunities come from the private markets, the philanthropic market and the impact investing space. They are carefully analyzing these options and looking for alternatives in capital markets. Pondering on Nuru's rewarding experience with KIVA, a Web-based lending platform, the team wonders if crowdfunding may be a viable option to finance Nuru's operations in Ethiopia. They are interested in equity crowdfunding but are not sure what might be the associated opportunities and risks. They, therefore, need to assess the merits of the practice and decide on how compelling it is for Nuru's expansion plans to Ethiopia.

The case aims to help students comprehend the role of hybrid organizational designs in meeting broad societal issues such as extreme poverty; evaluate collective impact initiatives in addressing strategic and behavioral changes for organizations operating in contexts of extreme poverty where partnerships are the key for success; assess diverse capital steams for social entrepreneurs and understand how these relate to the stages of evolution of a social venture; and elaborate on crowdfunding as a nascent source of capital for social enterprises.

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The case study takes students through basic principles and applications of entrepreneurship theory as demonstrated by the story of Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS). The case further demonstrates the significance of communicating a rallying vision in a change management situation. The case further allows the students to evaluate the concept and implication of entrepreneurial leadership thereby enhancing creativity and innovativeness in a firm.

An area that has had little interaction in the study of entrepreneurship is within the development and humanitarian agencies. This is a case study on Entrepreneurial Habits in the KRCS. The leadership of KRCS combined different entrepreneurial actions that were able to deliver commercial goals in a not-for-profit organization. The final overarching consideration was the sustainability of the changes implemented over a period of time.

Graduate level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Micro Finance Institution (MFI) named Rojiroti had been doing good work for weaker sections of the society and had brought about significant transformation in the lives of poor people, especially the Scheduled Castes, in villages of Patna district, the capital city of Bihar, India. Rojiroti was run by Centre for Promoting Sustainable Livelihood (CPSL) and had tested successfully a unique innovative model in micro financing which focused on helping the weaker sections by addressing their imminent needs which usually required very small loan amounts. With the various types of benefits people got from buying government subsidized ration to health and education in family to construct home or buy small livelihood assets. The beneficiaries developed high level of respect and trust for the MFI, Rojiroti. Rojiroti had received international recognition from universities such as University of Nottingham, UK; the University was not only researching on the model and its contributions to society, but also had supported it with funding to cater to its audience. Rojiroti did not believe in just providing finance to people like other microfinance institutions (MFI) or corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding by private and public sector organizations; its model focused more on creating capacities in the beneficiaries to sustain their livelihoods. However, after a decades time, Sunil, the protagonist in the case found himself in a situation where he had to decide for the future journey of Rojiroti after having reached a decent stage of growth The case discusses the journey of Rojiroti where the protagonist Sunil had a significant role to play and dwells upon the Rojiroti business model, its beneficiaries and value offerings to them, the changing environment outside and leaves the discussion open on the question of the choice of best road suited for Rojiroti.

The case is intended for the course on Strategic Management with a focus on business models topic. The case introduces the working of social cooperative business model and the nuances around it which is very much pertinent in today’s times where social enterprises have gained space in business and where businesses work around inclusive business models. The case is designed to provide supplemental support or discussion piece while dealing with business model / cooperative enterprise business model. This case provides opportunity to discuss strategic framework for an organization from the promoter’s perspective. The teaching notes is written from the perspective of the entrepreneur (the protagonist in this case, Sunil) who initiated the enterprise, with a learning goal to empathize and develop skills to have strategic decision making for a social enterprise.

The case is designed to provide supplemental support or discussion piece while dealing with business model / cooperative enterprise business model. This case provides opportunity to discuss strategic framework for an organisation from the promoter’s perspective. The teaching notes is written from the perspective of the entrepreneur (the protagonist in this case, Sunil) who initiated the enterprise, with a learning goal to empathize and develop skills to have strategic decision making for a social enterprise.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 3 Entrepreneurship.

The case features WaterHealth International India (WHIN) – a subsidiary of WaterHealth International (WHI) Inc. WHIN was launched in 2006 with the vision to “be the leader in providing scalable, safe, and affordable water solutions to underserved populations through an innovative business model.” The company incorporated a Build-Operate-Transfer model with decentralized production and distribution. Following a successful pilot project, WHIN installed its WaterHealth Centers in 175 sites throughout rural India by 2009, and attracted a $15 million investment from the International Finance Corporation to further expand its operations in India. Mr Vikas Shah, the Chief Operating Officer of the company, is faced with the issue of assessing scalability and sustainability of the company's business model. He needs to examine and evaluate the company's value proposition, resources and capabilities, and decide how to generate economic value while maintaining a focus on its social vision. The latter entails an ability to create shared value for stakeholders as an important contributor toward the company's sustainability. Additionally, Mr Shah is evaluating alternative public-private partnerships in terms of their suitability for the Indian context and viability to drive profitability.

The case uses primary and secondary data, i.e. interviews with company representatives, company reports, presentations, and consulting papers.

The case is written for graduate (and advanced undergraduate) students that enroll in classes with a focus on emerging markets, sustainability, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Examples are courses in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (especially those that include one or more sessions on the social dimensions) as well as those in Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development.