South Africa's social enterprises – new business models in a unique context?

The literature on social entrepreneurship in Africa is sparse, but has latterly begun to focus on the influence of context on the goals, activities and operations. On the basis of a large scale study of social entrepreneurship... [ view full abstract ]

The literature on social entrepreneurship in Africa is sparse, but has latterly begun to focus on the influence of context on the goals, activities and operations. On the basis of a large scale study of social entrepreneurship in South Africa, this study considers the role of context in the development of social enterprise business models.

In South Africa, the social entrepreneurship debate lacks evidence as to who social entrepreneurs are, their conditions of work and the socio-economic benefit they generate. As a result of this, policy development has been stunted and legislative barriers and red-tape remain. Social entrepreneurs remain isolated, and struggle to access funding because of limitations in legislative and organisational structure. These systemic issues are compounded by a broad lack of management and leadership skills in social leaders.

The objective of the broader study is to strengthen the ecosystem for social entrepreneurship in South Africa by producing robust information from and about social enterprises currently in operation across the country. This preliminary study was based on qualitative data, collected through 18 face to face interviews with founders, each lasting approximately 60 - 90 minutes.

The results demonstrate that business models evolve in response to the context, often in pursuit of resources required to realise a relatively stable social mission.