New Dimensions of Sustainability Through Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This paper proposes a new paradigm of sustainability developed through an extensive qualitative study of social entrepreneurship ventures from a purely management perspective. By studying the evolutionary progress of selected ventures across diverse segments of social arena, several dimensions of social entrepreneurship that have a positive impact on sustainability of socio economic eco system in the immediate region of operation of the venture, have been evaluated. The study aims at developing a new insight on sustainability achieved by ventures through social reorganization & inclusive entrepreneurship. The study evaluates the role of transformational leadership and the interaction and applicability of psychological, human and environmental forces in the sustainability equilibrium. The study then highlights the factors that have a strong impact on the scalability & replication of social ventures as it has been established that scalability is a prime mover towards an eco system where social initiatives derive maximum sustainable advantage. The study identifies key drivers of success and also barriers of scalability. The study also compares community oriented development initiative with the much touted micro finance driven initiative.

Keywords: Sustainability, Social entrepreneurship, scalability, inclusive entrepreneurship, micro finance, community driven development