The role of cooperation and co-creation in social entrepreneurship How it boosts creativity: Emergence and synergy


Cooperation in social Entrepreneurship


In a VUCA world, the search for solutions to societal and environmental challenges has become more complex. While market systems have become interconnected and supply chains have become supply webs, public policy and industry norms are not changing as fast. They are therefore becoming ever less effective tools for governing our societies.

An essential first step in directing the unstoppable force of change toward social and environmental problem-solving is to recognize dysfunctional systems. A radical reconsideration of the outmoded status quo is required to address issues like unsustainable value chains and unequal citizenship.

Social entrepreneurs have long developed solutions to issues that businesses or governments were unable to address—and, in many cases, had even contributed to the development of. However, it is essential to look beyond the conventional gap between the social and commercial sectors if we are to solve today's problems at the scale and pace that is necessary.

"In times of crisis, social entrepreneurs have shown their ability to subvert conventional business logic, reduce the cost of their solution as much as possible, run their businesses on a shoestring budget, and concentrate intensely on their "clients." For businesses, each of these items may be quite beneficial.

Seen from a business perspective, social entrepreneurs focus on market failures. They create products, services, and solutions for people who are not served by traditional markets: from people with disabilities to the aging population to women outside the workplace.

Companies are searching for new growth prospects and strategies to stay competitive in the face of weak economic growth and rising unemployment. Co-creating goods or services with social entrepreneurs could help them see market inefficiencies more quickly and come up with novel solutions to them, putting them ahead of the curve.

Companies are simultaneously seeking strategies to inspire staff members who are looking for fulfilling careers.


Co-creation in social entrepreneurship


The co-production model is used by the majority of social companies. This assumes that users – and often other local stakeholders – are represented on the enterprise's governing bodies, which leads to the adoption of multi-stakeholder governance models and bottom-up attempts to produce social impact. Furthermore, the collaborative ties that social enterprises build with other players, such as other social enterprises, public agencies, third-sector and civic actors, and for-profit enterprises, profoundly impact scaling plans and operations. Creating collaborative links and partnerships allows social companies to disseminate their knowledge, overcome entrance hurdles to new markets, and satisfy additional resource demands. As a result, they may scale their influence without scaling their operating model.

IKEA + social entrepreneurs - Co creating Change


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Scale-up in Social entrepreneurship


When an organization's primary goal is to maximize profit or shareholder value, as is the case with traditional businesses, scaling typically involves expanding the business, expanding markets, and achieving economies of scale. In contrast, the primary goal of social enterprises is to broaden and deepen the social impact through adding value to people, communities, and society. Some social enterprises want to reach a larger number of consumers or beneficiaries, and therefore broaden their social influence (quantitative approach). Others diversify their operations, either to fulfill new local needs or to address the same needs from diverse perspectives. These social enterprises want to scale their social effect deeply (qualitative approach). Scaling, in this context, is growing or replicating and altering organizational structures and processes. This may also encourage social enterprises and other public or private entities to form alliances and share information.


Increasing impact via expanding


Social businesses use a range of methods, including organizational expansion, mergers and/or acquisitions, and diversification, depending on whether they want to expand their effect to new markets and places, introduce new products and services, or a mix of the two. These techniques may also be used by social companies who wish to grow competitively and generate income. Social enterprises that have an established operational model with demonstrated social effect choose organizational expansion and elect to do "more of the same" by reaching out to a bigger number of beneficiaries and/or enhancing the quality of their services or goods. Social businesses, like small and medium-sized conventional enterprises or start-ups, leverage economies of scale to lower costs while boosting the efficiency and productivity of their operations and processes. Mergers and acquisitions are beneficial when deciding to expand in an existing or new location or sector through strategic buying and selling or joining separate organizations. Thanks to the commercial support and know-how supplied by the parent social enterprise, this method enabled some social businesses to survive – and even scale their effect – in the face of adverse economic conditions during the financial crisis.

Diversification enables social enterprises to scale their impact by diversifying the activities related to their mission, either by adding an upstream or downstream activity to their value chain (vertical), adding a new activity to their portfolio in the sector where they already operate - thus building on their expertise (horizontally), or expanding to a completely new field of activity (horizontally) (resulting in a conglomerate).


Scaling impact via replication


Social enterprises may opt to scale by reproducing successful models or strategies for creating social impact in various geographical contexts. Some of the benefits of replication include the ability to scale impact without expanding the organization, allowing for local ownership, and allowing others to quickly adopt and adapt. When a social company replicates an inspiring model or example without going through a formal process, this is known as spontaneous replication. It can also happen more formally, for as through branches or social franchising. A social enterprise establishes branches to increase its local presence and tailor its services to local social needs, allowing it to retain some control over and coordinate the tactics employed to achieve social effect.

Social franchising allows other social businesses to quickly and precisely replicate a social enterprise's proven business model, in accordance with a set of parameters agreed upon with the parent organization in a compliance agreement. Such an agreement may include marketing and training processes, as well as how the social enterprise should be run and how the products or services will be sold or supplied. The parent organization can give a guidebook outlining all of these characteristics, as well as management techniques, to the new social enterprise (franchisee). This necessitates high levels of quality assurance for the delivery and management systems, as well as strict control to avoid social brand equity depreciation and social emphasis dispersal. Both tactics, branches and social franchising, may help to ensure that the brand is easily identifiable by public or private stakeholders and customers, thereby easing the social enterprise's entrance to new markets.


Scaling impact through partnerships


Setting up strategic partnerships with other groups (like government agencies, private businesses, and other social enterprises) is another way to increase social impact because it gives you access to new markets, skills, and abilities faster than other scaling strategies. For example, creating and adapting a structure (like a branch or social franchise) in a new setting or growing an existing one may take longer and require a lot of resources. Partnerships can be good for both sides.

To begin, social enterprises may profit from contracts for welfare services and/or band together to engage in bidding procedures. Second, they can use their partner's (public or private) infrastructure, which could also be a way to get their goods or services to new customers. Third, it might be good for the government to adopt a new way of providing social services. Lastly, private businesses can make money off of their reputations.


Scaling impact through knowledge sharing


Sharing knowledge can help social enterprises grow or speed up their growth, and it can also help them learn from their connections with traditional businesses. For example, they can learn business skills like management techniques, ways to measure performance, and ways to bring in money that they can then use to grow. They might also benefit from working with other social enterprises, which can teach them useful new ways to do things, like how to provide social services. Such interactions can happen in a formal way, such as through labeling or official training procedures set up by the traditional or social enterprise offering the know-how, or they can happen informally, which doesn't have any rules and aims to reach as many people as possible.

In the same way, some social enterprises can share their organizational culture and knowledge (for example, about how things work) with other social enterprises that want to copy their model. They can also tell other social enterprises that want to work in the same market or area what they know about the specific conditions in which they work. This can happen informally, like when people get together for networking events. It can also be done in a formal way, where a social enterprise gives activities that need to be scaled to new partners. This is especially true when the social business model needs to be changed to meet goals that haven't been tried before. Overall, these ways of sharing information, which are also called "cross-fertilization" or "cross-pollination," can help other scaling strategies, such as branches or social franchising.


ANNEX I


BELBIN TEAM ROLES QUESTIONNAIRE

This questionnaire is about how you prefer to work in teams and what your distinctive contribution is. There are no right or wrong answers. It should take 15 to 20 minutes to complete - spending longer will not improve the result. In each of the seven sections, you have ten points to distribute among the sentences which you think most accurately describe your behavior. These points might be distributed among several sentences.
In extreme cases, they might be spread among all the sentences or all ten points may be given to a single sentence. Allocate the most points to the most accurate descriptions. Enter the points in the spaces.

When you have completed all seven sections, transfer your points onto the score sheet and add up each column total. Then fill in the rest of the page.

Questionnaire:


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