How Different are Social Business Firms from Social Entrepreneurial Firms: A Comparison of two Successful Cases
Author(s)
Ezgi Yildirim Saatçi* (Assistant Professor, Muhammad Yunus International Center for Microfinance and Social Business, Okan University, Tuzla Campus, Akfirat-Tuzla/Istanbul, Turkey), *Corresponding author's Email
Citation
Saatçi, Ezgi Yildirim (2013), "How Different are Social Business Firms from Social Entrepreneurial Firms: A Comparison of two Successful Cases", MERC Global's International Journal of Management, Vol. 01, Issue: 02, pp. 130-149.
Article history
Submitted: August 21, 2013, Revision received: September 20, 2013, Accepted: September 29, 2013
“Social” preceded managerial terminologies are becoming popular and elevated. Social entrepreneurship, social business, social innovation, social change management and corporate social responsibility can be attributed as examples of popular buzzwords. As popular as they are, vindicate and precise distinguishing factors of these concepts are not commonly affirmed. In this paper, with an inclination to enlighten this vagueness, two successful cases are detailed i.e. Husk Power Systems and Grameen Shakti. Husk Power Systems represent an example of the social entrepreneurial firm which has been chosen as a social entrepreneur of the year 2008 by Fortune Magazine. On the other hand, Grameen Shakti vegetates for social business which was founded and supported by Grameen Bank that has won Nobel peace prize jointly with its founder Prof. Muhammad Yunus in 2006. In the analysis part “Strategic Business Canvas” with labels of value propositions, channels, customer segments, customer relationships, key partners, key resources, key activities, cost structure and revenue streams are used. Besides that social impact, innovation and strategy dimensions of organisations are also detailed and contrasted in the concluding remarks.
Keywords
Social entrepreneurship, Social business, Strategic business map, Business canvas, Social responsibility, Grameen Shakti, Husk Power Systems.
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