Graziella Comini
University of Sao Paulo
Economist with a Master and Ph.D. in Management from the School of Economics,Management and Accounting at the University of Sao Paulo; Specialization Courses at University of Bologna and Harvard Business School; Undergraduate Coordinator of the Business Course at University of Sao Paulo; Teaches Human Resources and Social Entrepreneurship at undergraduate and graduate levels ; Coordinator of CEATS (Center of Social Entrepreneurship and Administration in the Third Sector) at USP (www.ceats.org.br);Represents Brazil in the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network – SEKN(www.sekn.org);Part of the group that launched the First Brazilian MBA in socio-environmental business in 2012, a partnership among CEATS/ University of Sao Paulo, Artemisia and IPE (Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas); Pedagogical coordinator of the first Brazilian MBA focused on Social Environmental Business. Author of several articles about social businesses and social entreprises in Brazil.
Businesses that aim to achieve social impact through market mechanisms arise as a new form of addressing social problems. Their potential effectiveness has led social actors to focus on promoting business through impact investment. However, a major challenge faced is their lack of preparation to receive resources to scale their operations mainly due to absence of business acumen, management inexperience and planning flaws. These deficiencies particularly regard the embryonic character of the social enterprise industry in Brazil and the consequent low availability of sources of knowledge on social enterprise management in the country. Brazil does not have specific laws governing the format and purpose social enterprises; hence some are structured as business units of civil society organizations while others have market characteristics from their outset. The diverse peculiarities of social enterprises deserve to be known and analyzed, insofar as they constitute material of deep interest for academics and practitioners. Therefore, their business models, challenges and management solutions need to be identified so that their experiences can be systematized and disseminated. The diffusion of this knowledge may enable existing social business to improve their operations performance and new social impacting ventures to develop from their models.
Our research deepened the pioneer quantitative mapping undertaken by the Brazilian ANDE Pole in 2011, which highlighted the importance of giving continuity to studies focused on understanding the characteristics of social business and its promotion for investors, policy makers and entrepreneurs. Among these characteristics, our research encompassed the management challenges social enterprises face, their solutions and innovations, the indicators used to assess the social value created, and their role in promoting sustainable development on a local and national scale.
Our qualitative research systematized and disseminated 27 benchmark case studies, one for each State of the Federation, drawing a comprehensive picture of this entrepreneur movement throughout Brazil. The geographic extension of this fieldwork research is justified by the country’s continental dimensions and great cultural and socio-economic diversity. These different Brazils have not been covered by the scant knowledge on social business, which has been predominantly generated and disseminated in the south and southeast region.
We conducted the study to understand the business model adopted, the challenges experienced and the lessons learned by the entrepreneur. Each case study was structured as follows: contextualization; enterprise trajectory; business model (using Osterwalder & Pigneur’s business model (2010); social impact (based on Portocarrero & Delgado, 2010); and entrepreneur profile.
The mapping and study of each business brought to light the degree of business maturity, innovation pursued and challenges confronted. In Brazil’s richer regions (south and southeast), entrepreneurship with social impact goals is manifest closer to the concept of social business, and in its poorer regions through cooperatives and associations. The lack of social impact caused by the development of disruptive technologies, processes or products was also evident. Most businesses pursued social impact by including socially vulnerable groups in their supply chain or giving them market access. They also had challenges in common, independent of their field, such as balancing financial and social goals in the short and longer terms. The organizations were highly socially oriented and, therefore, could not reach a financial stability necessary to scale or replicate. The phenomenon is still very new in the country to enable effective assessments of social enterprises capacity for reaching the financial and social results that constitute the generation of social impacts. This justifies the need to maintain research, such as Brazil 27, to monitor the performance of these enterprises.
Key words: social enterprises; social innovation
References
Austin, J.,Stevenson, H, & Wei-Skillern, J. 2006. Social and commercial entrepreneurship:Same, different,or both?. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 30(1): 1-22
Comini, G, Barki, E., & Aguiar, L. 2012. A three-pronged approach to social business: a Brazilian multi-case analysis. Revista de Administração da USP, 47(3): 385-397.
Fischer, R.M.; Comini, G. Sustainable development: from responsibility to entrepreneurship. Revista de Administração da USP, 47(3): 363-369.
Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. 2010. Business Model Generation. Handbook. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons
Portocarrero, F. & Delgado, A. 2010. Negocios Inclusivos y generación de valor social. In: SEKN, ed. Negocios Inclusivos: Iniciativa de mercado com los pobres de Iberoamérica. Washington, DC: IADB.
