PAPER WRAP-UP: Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition, Mr. Roger L. Martin and Mrs. Sally Osberg

Authored by Mr. Roger L. Martin, the Dean of the University of Toronto’s (U of T) Rotman School of Management (Rotman) and a board member at the Skoll Foundation, and Mrs. Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, published Spring 2007 in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), a publication of the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), 13 pages, available at http://www.skollfoundation.org/media/skoll_docs/2007SP_feature_martinosberg.pdf

Martin and Osberg argue in “Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition” that the term, social entrepreneurship, needs further clarification to protect its positive public image as an area of great promise thereby securing the long-term investment and philanthropic donations that are needed to aid social entrepreneurs in their quest to create sustainable social value. In the authors’ own words, “If that promise is not fulfilled because too many ‘nonentrepreneurial’ efforts are included in the definition, then social entrepreneurship will fall into disrepute (page 4).”

The authors begin by defining entrepreneurship and identifying its key characteristics. The ability/alertness to sense or create opportunity, out-of-the-box thinking, and determination are traits that entrepreneurs must have, but which do not guarantee a hopeful entrepreneur’s success. The authors settle on a preliminary theoretical definition for entrepreneurship that involves the aforementioned qualities, a context in which opportunity exists or can be created, and the final transformation to a fruitful initiative creating value. To demonstrate the definition’s application, Martin and Osberg review the experiences of the following entrepreneurs: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer, Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll of eBay, Frederick W. Smith of FedEx, and Ann and Mike Moore of Snugli.

Up to the conclusion of Martin and Osberg’s real-life entrepreneurial anecdotes, the focus is on entrepreneurship, itself. The authors then shift to defining social entrepreneurship and begin by noting that all entrepreneurs are motivated by the same factor: opportunity. The authors argue, “that the critical distinction between entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship lies in the value proposition itself,” meaning that conventional entrepreneurship targets an audience with the resources to buy the product or service, thereby generating financial income (page 8). However, social entrepreneurs identify a highly underserved or disadvantaged population and provide a transformative societal benefit that may not have been realized, otherwise.

The first and most prominent example of a social entrepreneur that is given is Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Founder of Grameen Bank (GB) of Bangladesh, and promoter of microfinance as the most powerful tool against poverty.

Turning to other varieties of socially valuable activity, Martin and Osberg cite social service provision and social activism as two forms of social engagement that are often falsely labeled as social entrepreneurship. However, the authors admit that many social ventures combine more than one (if not all three) of the previously mentioned varieties of social engagement. For example, they write that Yunus “used social activism to accelerate and amplify the impact of Grameen Bank, a classic example of social entrepreneurship (page 12).”

Martin and Osberg conclude their paper with the following statement describing the social entrepreneur:

“The social entrepreneur should be understood as someone who targets an unfortunate but stable equilibrium that causes the neglect, marginalization, or suffering of a segment of humanity; who brings to bear on this situation his or her inspiration, direct action, creativity, courage, and fortitude; and who aims for and ultimately affects the establishment of a new stable equilibrium that secures permanent benefit for the targeted group and society at large (page 13).”

Also the Director of U of T’s AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AIC Institute) at Rotman, Mr. Roger L. Martin is originally from Wallenstein, Ontario and formerly worked as the Director of Monitor Company. He is also the Chairman of Workbrain and serves on the boards of the Canadian Credit Management Foundation (CCMF), the Skoll Foundation, and Tennis Canada, in addition to the Audit Committee at Thomson Reuters. Furthermore, Mr. Martin is a Trustee of the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and serves on the advisory boards of Butterfield & Robinson (B&R), Jefferson Partners, and Social Capital Partners (SCP). Mr. Martin earned an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 1981, received the Marshall McLuhan Visionary Leadership Award in 2004, and was named as one BusinessWeek’s seven “innovation gurus” in 2005.

In addition to leading the Skoll Foundation, Mrs. Sally Osberg served as the Executive Director of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM), President of the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM), and an adjunct professor at both Hamilton College and Utica College. Osberg currently sits on the boards of the CDM and the Oracle Education Foundation in addition to the advisory board of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities (GWC). In the past, she was a board member of the ACM and the American Leadership Forum (ALF), received the John Gardner Leadership Award from the ALF (1998), and was named as one of Silicon Valley’s “Millennium 100” by San Jose Mercury News (Mercury News) (1999). Osberg received her MA in Literature from the Claremont Graduate University (CGU).

By Anthony Busch, Research Assistant

Additional Resources:

“Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition”

Apple Computer: Home, Steve Jobs

BusinessWeek: Home, “The Academic: Roger Martin”, by Robert Berner, August 1, 2005; “Get Creative! How to Build Innovative Companies”, by Burce Nussbaum with Robert Berner and Diane Brady, August 1, 2005

CBS News: Home, “The Mom Who Invented the Snugli”, March 6, 2001

eBay: Home

FedEx: Home, Frederick W. Smith

Grameen Bank: Home

The Nobel Foundation: Home, The Nobel Peace Prize 2006

Omidyar Network: Home, Pierre Omidyar

Skoll Foundation: Home, Roger L. Martin, Sally Osberg, Jeff Skoll

Stanford University: Home, Graduate School of Business, Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Thomson Reuters: Home, Roger L. Martin

University of Toronto: Home, Rotman School of Management, Dean Roger Martin, AIC Institute for Corporate Citizenship

Woz.org: Home

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