Social entrepreneurs directly contribute to global development goals

Seelos, C., Ganly, K. and Mair, J. 2005.  IESE Paper: OP-05-14

IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona.

Abstract

This study evaluates whether social entrepreneurs have found ways to contribute directly to achieving established sustainable development goals and whether they are able to operate in the least developed countries. Development programs, designed and driven by multinational organizations and governments, in particular those of the OECD countries, have been unable to change the fates of the more than two billion people who continue to live in severe poverty. The need to find novel solutions to a multitude of human and social problems is urgent. Social entrepreneurs have found new ways to provide services that cater to basic human needs which remain unsatisfied by governments and markets. We show that their initiatives help to achieve Millennium Development Goals even in the least developed countries. Therefore, we see them as models that could inspire or complement efforts by multilateral development organizations. Furthermore, because social entrepreneurs create both human and social capital and innovative service delivery models, they provide fertile ground for corporations to enter developing markets and contribute to economic development. 

An adapted version of this paper was published as a chapter in J. Mair et al, 2006. “Social Entrepreneurship”, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, UK and New York, pages: 235-275.