Efforts towards training social entrepreneurs: From the Kagawa Business & Public Competition

【Problem consciousness】  The graduate school of management, Kagawa University, to which the author belongs, is a professional postgraduate management school that contributes to the local community. Our focus is the... [ view full abstract ]

【Problem consciousness】 

The graduate school of management, Kagawa University, to which the author belongs, is a professional postgraduate management school that contributes to the local community. Our focus is the training of regional business leaders and professional administrative officials and we have about 400 alumni, mainly in the Seto Inland Sea and Shikoku areas. Graduates are active as social entrepreneurs: they create businesses to solve public policy and regional issues and they train the executives of local companies. Our school has been collaborating with sponsor companies since FY2014 to hold the Kagawa Business & Public Competition. The aim is to support people who have recently started up businesses in Kagawa Prefecture and to train entrepreneurs based in the area.    

【About the Kagawa Business & Public Competition】

The Kagawa Business & Public Competition was held for the fourth time last autumn. This year, the public are invited to submit business plans, and a final plan will be put together from the business plans that pass the initial selection by the relevant faculty. We have chosen Grand Prix for business and public, and are offering prize money of 500,000 yen. We will also be presenting the judge’s special prize, which is 100,000 yen. In addition, we have established networking opportunities for sponsors, administrators, and non-profit organisations, and we will be offering entrepreneurial support.    

【Method of Research】

In this study, the author attempts to evaluate the founding support through case studies, from the viewpoint of support of social enterprises, as a result of the Kagawa Business & Public Competition. As a result of the competition, we have awarded prize money for 20 business plans over the past four years. The main fields of entrepreneurship are handicraft making, use of agriculture commerce, and industry collaboration and local resources. Fourteen of them are classified as social enterprises. Of these, seven projects are still active. The main purpose of the competition is the training of social entrepreneurs in the area. Just introduce the main case examples and evaluate the competition.   

【Case study】

· Onba Factory (Business Grand Prix 2014)

Onba factory is a community business that manufactures and sells baby carriages that are the feet of elderly people in Ogijima, Takamatsu City. Local artists planned the manufacture and sale of baby carriages, considering elderly people on Megijima where there are many steep slopes. It is a business to solve the transport problems of elderly people in the area.

· Tsu_ta_e_ru (Business Grand Prix 2015)

Tsu ta e ru makes shoes for newborn babies, pray at Zentsuji, the temple where Kobo Daishi was born, and sell them. This is an entrepreneurial activity by a Kagawa University graduate student whose aim is to preserve the decline of local industries and develop handicrafts within the local community.

· Sanuki · A · Muir Project (Business Grand Prix 2016)

Mussels are produced as a by-product of oyster cultivation in Sanuki City, Kagawa Prefecture, but until now, these mussels were being discarded. Graduate students from Kagawa University aim to support local community businesses by making use of this local resource commercially.   

【Summary】

Kagawa Business & Public Competition is aimed at training entrepreneurs in the area, and this has led indirectly to the training of social entrepreneurs. This is a planned randomness (Krumboltz, 2002). In particular, many of the entrepreneurs are graduate students of business schools and active women in the local area. This shows that the activity around start-up businesses in the area was facilitated by our school’s support for the social entrepreneurs who are involved in the local community of Kagawa. Furthermore, the activities in Kagawa are spreading to other areas: in 2016, our graduates from Saitama Prefecture established the Kuki Business & Public Competition in Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture.    

【References】

· John D. Krumboltz & Al S. Levin "Planned Happenstance: Making the Most of Chance Events in Your Life and Your Career" 2002 Impact Pub

· Okubojima Onba Factory

Http://yousakana.jp/onba-facto...

· Tsu_ta_e_ru http://tsu-ta-e-ru.jp/

(Accessed on November 27, 2016)