How Social Entrepreneurship Can Contribute to Upscale Social Innovation Practices

Jorge Cunha, Paul Benneworth, Floor Stolk, Lalith Welamedage and Madalena Araujo
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Jorge Cunha: ALGORITMI Research Center, University of Minho, Portugal
Paul Benneworth: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Floor Stolk: Creative Technology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Lalith Welamedage: Lanka Social Ventures, Sri Lanka
Madalena Araujo: ALGORITMI Research Center, University of Minho, Portugal

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD), 2022, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: In this paper, we address the research question of to what extent is it possible to discern theories of change being built into the business practices of nascent social enterprises in ways that lay foundations for the subsequent upscaling of their social innovations? We argue that social enterprises that are ‘ready-to-upscale’ are those that clearly produce a solution to an underlying problem, and where their activities are clearly derived from the underlying problem, and also those activities clearly connect forward to deliver consistent solutions. We apply a Theories of Change approach to the concept of social entrepreneurship as a means of setting a criterion for ‘ready-to-upscale’, studying six Sri Lankan micro-social enterprises in which we can trace stories of impact. This provides a means to develop a model of the ways that social entrepreneurship creates the foundations for structural changes that reduce systematic inequalities, and offers social enterprise funders a framework to better stimulate emergence of social enterprises ready-to-upscale and deliver social innovation.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jsesd0:v:13:y:2022:i:4:p:1-18

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