Social Business entrepreneurs are becoming popular these days. They are making profits but at the same time they can help solve or address societal problems.
Many firms or companies give back to the community and a robust corporate social responsibility program can have a substantial impact on charity projects. This helps address societal problems and at the same time it can benefit their companies. It aids business in building their brand and exposure, attracting, and retaining personnel who share their beliefs and fostering employee camaraderie and rapport. Social business entrepreneurs are becoming popular these days. A company can do a lot of things to give back to the community if they really want to do well or help resolve the different societal problems that we are facing right now.
They not only consume up the most time in most people’s lives, but they also aid in the development of innovative ideas and technical advancements. Society is influenced by business. It contributes to higher employment rates, which is why businesses have such a significant impact on our society. It reduces crime rates rather than pushing them into theft to meet wants that people can meet through respectable work.
There are a lot of things a company or a business can do to help our community. Our company that we are working for right now who are not considered as social business enterprise can do or implement different initiatives to help or give back to our community. Like what Howard Zinn says that “Small Acts, when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world”. This really captured our attention. Even though we do trivial things but if there are so many people who are doing it, it can really help develop, improve, and make a better community to have a better life. The first thing to consider was doing sponsorships. The company can contribute through monetary donations or doing a sponsorship to different charity events. One of our members is working at a retail and wholesale business. This certain company does charity things like donations for different hospitals and now they are doing for food like “Fight Hunger Spark Change”. These simple and extremely helpful things are especially important to give back to the community. Another thing that a company can do is do Office Drives in which they collect donations for a cause such as providing clothes for the homeless, books for the prisoners and giving support to underprivileged families. A company can also hire people with disabilities, the elderly and those people who have been in prison, also the youth that are this will help address the unemployment rate of the community. We all know that if a person goes to jail, they will have a challenging time finding a job because of this. I know some companies that hire this certain kind of person, and it is so heartwarming that they are giving a second chance to these diverse types of persons.
This can be successful if we consumers, employees, and people living in our community will prioritize this kind of business and show our support to them. Even though they are doing these actions, if their business, programs, or charities are not fully supported it will not be a success. Helping through the smallest deeds makes a significant difference to address the different societal problems.
In conclusion, social entrepreneurs have the potential power to explore and inspire other people. They create positivity when the people are compelled to join you in the good doing. A 2017 international study from Unilever reveals that 33% of consumers choose to buy from the brands that they believe are doing environmental or social good. (Bakker, 2020)
REFRENCES:
Hall, T. (2020, February 20). 7 ways companies can give back to the community. Inc.com. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.inc.com/tanya-hall/seven-ways-companies-can-give-back-to-community.html
Businessify, S. (2022, March 22). Why is business important to society. SmallBusinessify.com. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://smallbusinessify.com/why-is-business-important-to-society/
Margarette Tongco (75950) Tanvir Kaur (75540) Vishal Singh (76865)
16 April 2022 at 8:51 pm
Social enterprise is so much more than corporate social responsibility. By definition, to be a social enterprise, the business itself must be designed to create social value. Corporate responsibility is valuable, but social enterprises elevate corporate responsibility.
Social enterprises tackle problems with a mission to create opportunities for their communities, specifically at-risk people. The business itself is part of the solution. Tom’s shoes, as discussed in our reading, Good Corp, Bad corp (Jimeze, G. & Pulos, E. 2017) designed their company around providing shoes to people in need, based on a one-for-one model. For every pair of shoes sold, they would “[give] a free pair of shoes to an impoverished child in a developing country.” Utilizing business to create social value-added is better than charitable donations; personal involvement promotes conscious action rather than token contributions from the wealthy to greenwash followers with disingenuous merit (Edwards, 2022). It is essential to recognize this difference.
A popular and one of my favourite examples of social enterprise is the peer-to-peer economy and micro-lending movement. Through companies such as Kiva, crowdsourcing financial aid to entrepreneurs occurs at a 0% interest rate. The loans are small, up to $12,500, but every dollar makes a difference to a starting business, and in third-world countries, a few hundred can be the total seed funding. Banking the unbanked is a movement to reduce poverty, create opportunity, and eliminate barriers to entrepreneurs in developing nations or struggling areas of society.
The p2p movement began with Napster (Hernanded, 2012), was shut down by Metallica, and thrived in the underground before emerging as the victor and what is now standard; digital streaming of media, both centralized and decentralized. Banking the unbanked through p2p lending is the beginning of digitalizing money, perhaps the next significant revolutionalizing disruptor.
The beauty of applying peer-2-peer principles to social enterprise is empowering people, decentralized from the hands of corporations. Social enterprise embodies the spirit of community, with neighbors helping neighbors, and is the movement that most vastly revolutionalizes genuine corporate responsibility.
Another relatively new movement bucking neoliberalism is B corp certification. Defined as “a designation that business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials” (B Lab Global). This is the movement of stakeholder capitalism, requiring “corporate governance to be accountable for all stakeholders, not just shareholders.” The B Corp designation is a testimonial to an organization’s dedication to social enterprise and the greater good.
Without the effort of global corporations, complete disruption is unlikely to occur, despite the people’s determination. Change is inevitable, but it is an uphill battle without corporate responsibility; they must be held accountable to the people.
References:
Jimenez, C, G., Pulos, E. (2017, March 24) Good corporation, bad corporation: corporate social responsibility in the global economy. Milne Publishing. [Open Textbook].
https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/good-corporation-bad-corporation
Hernandez, D. (2012, April 13) April 13, 2000: Seek and destroy – metallica sues napster. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2012/04/april-13-2000-seek-and-destroy-metallica-sues-napster/
Edwards, C. (2022, February 24). What is greenwashing? Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10946-greenwashing.html
About b corp certification. Measuring a company’s entire social and environmental impact. B Lab Global. https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/certification
18 April 2022 at 3:03 pm
It is a fascinating article, and I have learned a lot about social enterprises and their value to society. Firstly, I want to add that this is one of a company’s most crucial long-term advantages. CSR assists businesses in becoming more sustainable. According to EnergyLink, “One obvious way to become socially responsible is to reduce carbon emissions and start using renewable energy” ( EnergyLink, 2021). Companies may also encourage their employees to switch off machines when they are not in use, as well as turn off lights and air conditioning when they leave the office. According to Bernie Sanders, “Every day we are paying more for energy than we should due to poor insulation, inefficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment – money we could save by investing in energy efficiency” ( Rinkesh, 2017). The firm may save a significant amount of money on utility costs as well as get recognition as a socially responsible corporation by doing this.
Moving further, the corporation develops a feeling of community among its customers as it wins public trust. Community members may become proud of the company’s CSR even if they are not directly related to it. As a result of CSR, the company-consumer connection might be significantly healthier. In the meanwhile, it recruits and keeps personnel on the inside. When businesses practise philanthropy or do good for the community, they are more likely to generate a favourable work environment for their workers.
The second thing I would want to point out in this article is that it lacks supporting sentences, which provide the reader with the necessary information. They will be well-cited remarks that show readers where the original ideas originated. The following paragraph will be the second paragraph of the post, with supporting sentence: –
Many firms or companies give back to the community and a robust corporate social responsibility program can have a substantial impact on charity projects. This helps address societal problems and at the same time it can benefit their companies. According to EnergyLink, “88% of consumers said they were more likely to spend money for a company that supports and engages in activities to improve society” (EnergyLink, 2021). It aids business in building their brand and exposure, attracting, and retaining personnel who share their beliefs and fostering employee camaraderie and rapport. Social business entrepreneurs are becoming popular these days. A company can do a lot of things to give back to the community if they really want to do well or help resolve the different societal problems that we are facing right now.
I added one supporting sentence to the above paragraph to support the second sectence of the paragraph which is “This helps address societal problems and at the same time it can benefit their companies.” It not only adds to the explanation of the writing, but it also supports the statements we make in our writing.
The second thing which caught my attention is that the last line of the last paragraph is an in-text citation which was not properly cited. An in-text citation must be in the Quotation mark. Following is last paragraph with proper in-text citation :-
In conclusion, social entrepreneurs have the potential power to explore and inspire other people. They create positivity when the people are compelled to join you in the good doing. “A 2017 international study from Unilever reveals that 33% of consumers choose to buy from the brands that they believe are doing environmental or social good” (Bakker, 2020).
References:-
Measey, J. (n.d.). Writing a paragraph. Retrieved April 16, 2022, from http://john.measey.com/Blog/2017/09/17/Writing-a-paragraph
5 benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility. EnergyLink. (2021, August 31). Retrieved April 16, 2022, from https://goenergylink.com/blog/5-benefits-of-corporate-social-responsibility/
Rinkesh. (2017, March 8). 5 ways to reduce your office electricity bills. Conserve Energy Future. Retrieved April 19, 2022, from https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/ways-reduce-office-electricity-bills.php