Social enterprises of all forms drive inclusive growth by creating social and economic networks, and a stable ecosystem, that enable societies to grow and prosper. This book presents a collection of ten case studies that demonstrate the important role played by social enterprises in driving inclusive growth in Asia’s economies. Unlike the traditional models, such as NGOs and charities, that are donor dependent for funding, a social enterprise is a hybrid business model that includes both social mission and revenue generation goals to ensure sustainability and self-reliance. The ten case studies in the book provide a ringside view of how social enterprises operate and evolve to create, sustain, and scale up their social impact. Readers will gain a practical understanding of how social entrepreneurs struggle to maintain a balance between their two seemingly contradictory goals of creating social value and generating economic returns. The book carries the readers on the journey of each of these ten social enterprises, offering unique and valuable insights into the motivations, tribulations, successes, and even failures of these organisations—critical for continued learning, contribution, and innovation in the domain. The book is appropriate for all readers interested in the role social entrepreneurship plays in stimulating economic growth in Asia, including organisations, government, and universities, as well as individuals.

In the absence of a widely accepted and common definition of social enterprise (SE), a large research project, the "International Comparative Social Enterprise Models" (ICSEM) Project, was carried out over a five-year period; it involved more than 200 researchers from 55 countries and relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the SE phenomenon. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, thus resulting in an analysis encompassing a wide diversity of social enterprises, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major SE models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. These SE models reveal or confirm an overall trend towards new ways of sharing the responsibility for the common good in today’s economies and societies. We tend to consider as good news the fact that social enterprises actually stem from all parts of the economy. Indeed, societies are facing many complex challenges at all levels, from the local to the global level. The diversity and internal variety of SE models are a sign of a broadly shared willingness to develop appropriate—although sometimes embryonic—responses to these challenges, on the basis of innovative economic/business models driven by a social mission. In spite of their weaknesses, social enterprises may be seen as advocates for and vehicles of the general interest across the whole economy. Of course, the debate about privatisation, deregulation and globalised market competition—all factors that may hinder efforts in the search for the common good–has to be addressed as well. The first of a series of four ICSEM books, Social Enterprise in Asia will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and other categories of people who want to acquire a broad understanding of the phenomena of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as they emerge and develop across the world.

This book focuses on the importance of entrepreneurship in sustaining the prosperity of society and uses the case studies from Taiwan, Japan as well as China, to provide an insight into Societal Entrepreneuring in Asia, and the construction of an entrepreneurial society. In order to provide a comprehensive and complete picture on entrepreneurship, the authors have also included both case studies of commercial endeavors as well as non-profit making business endeavours. These collective experiences would be invaluable to readers who are seeking to understand the role of entrepreneurship in Asian society.

Social capital is broadly conceptualised as consisting of resources and network ties embedded in the social structures and relationships that facilitate beneficial outcomes for the actors within those structures. Despite the number of research studies on social capital, there have been fewer attempts to examine social capital in the context of service-oriented firms, particularly in the Asia Pacific. This is surprising as the service industry plays an important role in the global services trade transactions and business activities. Social capital enables and maintains social relations for business transformation for service-oriented firms. Indeed, it would be unimaginable for any economic activity, particularly in service-oriented firms, to occur without social capital. This examination of social capital in the Asia Pacific region provides the context for recognising the cultural, social and economic opportunities and challenges of several Asia Pacific countries that can potentially enrich our knowledge and understanding of the region. Contributions are drawn from cases based in Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, China and Australia, for relevant application in the areas of social capital and service-oriented firms in the Asia Pacific. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Business Review.

In the world of creating new ventures with the single goal of achieving financial profitability, it is well known that nine of ten startups are likely to fail. For new social ventures that have the twin goals of financial profitability and social inclusiveness, the chances of failures are even higher. This book provides insight into the common struggles of social activists and the strategic responses necessary to not only overcome their organizational issues but also address the world’s pressing social challenges. The book not only traces the journey of the social activists in growing their social ventures to flesh out real-life issues but also introduces the latest management thinking on social innovation in daily business decision. This book makes a useful contribution in furthering the concepts of social innovation and entrepreneurship and inspiring more change agents to create and implement effective, scalable and sustainable solutions to address social issues and meet the needs of the disadvantaged groups in the society.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This cutting edge text considers how Asian philanthropists and charitable organizations break with Western philanthropic traditions and examines the key traits and trends that make social investment in Asia unique. Based on 30 case studies of excellent social delivery organizations (SDOs) and social enterprises as well as interviews with ultra-high net-worth individuals throughout Asia, this book examines which characteristics and strategies lead to successful philanthropy and social delivery organizations. Providing evidence based findings on philanthropy, social investment and social delivery organizations in Asia, this book provides invaluable resources for those wishing to deepen their understanding of the sector and what this means for political and economic development in the region.

Today, "social entrepreneurship" describes a host of new initiatives, and often refers to approaches that are breaking from traditional philanthropic and charitable organizational behavior. Nowhere is this more true than in the United States—where, from 1995–2005, the number of non-profit organizations registered with the IRS grew by 53%. But, what types of change have these social entrepreneurial efforts brought to the world of civil society and philanthropy? What works in today's environment? And, what barriers are these new efforts breaking down as they endeavor to make the world a better place? The Real Problem Solvers brings together leading entrepreneurs, funders, investors, thinkers, and champions in the field to answer these questions from their own, first-person perspectives. Contributors include marquee figures, such as Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton, Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder of the Acumen Fund, and Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation. The core chapters are anchored by an introduction, a conclusion, and question-and-answers sections that weave together the voices of various contributors. In no other book are so many leaders presented side-by-side. Therefore, this is the ideal accessible and personal introduction for students of and newcomers to social entrepreneurship.

In development circles, there is now widespread consensus that social entrepreneurs represent a far better mechanism to respond to needs than we have ever had before--a decentralized and emergent force that remains our best hope for solutions that can keep pace with our problems and create a more peaceful world.David Bornstein's previous book on social entrepreneurship, How to Change the World, was hailed by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times as "a bible in the field" and published in more than twenty countries. Now, Bornstein shifts the focus from the profiles of successful social innovators in that book--and teams with Susan Davis, a founding board member of the Grameen Foundation--to offer the first general overview of social entrepreneurship. In a Q & A format allowing readers to go directly to the information they need, the authors map out social entrepreneurship in its broadest terms as well as in its particulars.Bornstein and Davis explain what social entrepreneurs are, how their organizations function, and what challenges they face. The book will give readers an understanding of what differentiates social entrepreneurship from standard business ventures and how it differs from traditional grant-based non-profit work. Unlike the typical top-down, model-based approach to solving problems employed by the World Bank and other large institutions, social entrepreneurs work through a process of iterative learning--learning by doing--working with communities to find unique, local solutions to unique, local problems. Most importantly, the book shows readers exactly how they can get involved.Anyone inspired by Barack Obama's call to service and who wants to learn more about the essential features and enormous promise of this new method of social change, Social Entrepreneurship is the ideal first place to look.

A focused look into the business and management practices across Asia, from an author team located across three Asian-Pacific countries and experience of leading organisations spanning over more than two decades.

The first comparative look at how social enterprise is shaped by local conditions worldwide