Social Entrepreneurship: Business Models and Earned Income Strategies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Social Entrepreneurship: Business Models and Earned Income Strategies Bachelor Thesis for Obtaining the Degree Bachelor of Business Administration Tourism and Hospitality Management Submitted to Prof. Dr. Lund-Durlacher Sebastian Ferrari 1111532 Vienna, 2nd June 2014 2 Affidavit I hereby affirm that this Bachelor’s Thesis represents my own written work and that I have used no sources and aids other than those indicated. All passages quoted from publications or paraphrased from these sources are properly cited and attributed. The thesis was not submitted in the same or in a substantially similar version, not even partially, to another examination board and was not published elsewhere. Date Signature 3 Abstract This research explores social entrepreneurship from a business perspective. It aims at making a significant contribution to this topic’s literature in order to foster the perfervid debate taking place in academia. Starting out its journey with the scrutiny of the phenomenon’s definition, this study discards the concept’s erroneous synonymousness with corporate social responsibility. Subsequently proceeding with a thorough examination of pertinent subject matters, it not only reviews the various schools of thought, but also gives an account of the social entrepreneurs and their endeavors to address society’s most pressing needs by means of a market-based approach. Most importantly, this paper zeroes in on social business models and their respective earned income strategies. Besides, it touches upon performance measurement and impact assessment methods as well as future exit strategies of the studied social businesses. The research component is qualitative and consists of twelve in-depth interviews with respondents from all over the world. Interestingly enough, several organizations operate in the tourism industry, which is deemed to be the chief catalyst for social entrepreneurship. The findings are to some extent in line with the literature review, but also provide the reader with unexampled insights into the field of social entrepreneurship. For instance, consisting of for-profit as well as non-profit subunits, some of the participant organizations manage to combine external as well as internal revenue streams. Because of this earned income strategy they tend to be relatively successful. In conclusion, the author draws this paper to a close by suggesting future research avenues. 4 Table of Contents Affidavit ......................................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables ................................................................................................................. 8 List of Figures ................................................................................................................ 8 List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 10 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 11 1.1 Objectives .................................................................................................... 12 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................ 13 2.1 Corporate (Social) Responsibility ................................................................ 13 2.2 Entrepreneurship ........................................................................................ 17 2.3 Social Entrepreneurs ................................................................................... 20 2.4 Base of the Pyramid Market ....................................................................... 23 2.5 Schools of Thought ...................................................................................... 26 2.6 The Business Model .................................................................................... 28 2.7 Social Business Structures ........................................................................... 30 2.8 Financial Aspects ......................................................................................... 33 3 Research Design .................................................................................................. 34 3.1 Framework .................................................................................................. 34 3.2 Methodology ............................................................................................... 35 3.3 Interview ..................................................................................................... 37 4 Results ................................................................................................................. 39 4.1 Population Sample description ................................................................... 39 4.2 Sampling Units ............................................................................................ 41 5 5 Interpretation and Discussion ............................................................................. 44 5.1 First Question .............................................................................................. 44 5.2 Second Question ......................................................................................... 46 5.3 Third Question ............................................................................................ 48 5.4 Fourth Question .......................................................................................... 50 5.5 Fifth Question ............................................................................................. 52 6 Limitations ........................................................................................................... 55 7 Conclusive Thoughts ........................................................................................... 56 8 Future Research Avenues ................................................................................... 58 9 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 59 9.1 Book and Papers ......................................................................................... 59 9.2 Internet Sources .......................................................................................... 62 10 Appendices ...................................................................................................... 64 10.1 Appendix 1 .................................................................................................. 64 10.2 Appendix 2 .................................................................................................. 65 10.3 Appendix 3 .................................................................................................. 66 10.4 Appendix 4 .................................................................................................. 67 10.5 Appendix 5 .................................................................................................. 68 10.5.1 Mammu ............................................................................................... 68 10.5.2 TravelGiver .......................................................................................... 71 10.5.3 Risflecting ............................................................................................ 74 10.5.4 The One Brand .................................................................................... 77 10.5.5 Tribewanted ........................................................................................ 81 10.5.6 Grameen Creative Lab ......................................................................... 87 10.5.7 Jane Acton - Nature Workshop ........................................................... 90 10.5.8 Variomondo ........................................................................................ 94 10.5.9 Lalaland ............................................................................................... 96 6 10.5.10 Iziko lo Lwazi ................................................................................... 98 10.5.11 PEPY Tours ..................................................................................... 102 10.5.12 Sumak Travel ................................................................................. 104 7 List of Tables Table 1: Social Action Framework ............................................................................... 17 Table 2: Dimensions of social entrepreneurship ........................................................ 23 Table 3: Sample composition ...................................................................................... 41 List of Figures Figure 1: CSR Pyramid ................................................................................................. 14 Figure 2: The virtuous circle ........................................................................................ 15 Figure 3: Pure forms of social engagement ................................................................ 19 Figure 4: Types of social entrepreneurs