Browsing by Subject "Social entrepreneurship"
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Item Open Access ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 12: an exploratory study on sustainable consumption in Lima, Peru(2017-04-28) Hofmeijer, IreneIn 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; a global action plan for people, planet, and prosperity. Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12) aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. This research explored the attainability of SDG 12 in Lima-Peru through the lens of market-based, purpose-driven organizations. First, semi-structured in-depth interviews were held with founders of market-based, purpose-driven organizations in order to analyze their perspectives on the current state of sustainable consumption in Lima, Peru. Second, a comparative knowledge, attitude, and behavior survey was implemented to a group of followers of one of the market-based, purpose-driven organizations and a control group of non-followers of environmental organizations. Interview results show that the founders believe that they are actively contributing to achieving SDG12, but that even though sustainable consumption patterns are beginning to emerge in Lima, Peru, targets will unlikely be reached by 2030. Survey results showed that follower of the organizations had statistically different results for knowledge and behavior. They had a higher understanding of sustainability concept, actively informed themselves on environmental issues, and had adopted sustainable consumption habits. Study results show that market-based, purpose-driven organizations are actively contributing to the attainability of SDG 12 in Lima, Peru but also that challenges, primarily at the governance level, remain.Item Open Access An on-campus community grocery store: A social purpose business model for Paul Quinn College(2013-04-19) Vanderburgh-Wertz, DarrowEXECUTIVE SUMMARY Paul Quinn College (PQC) has a vision for becoming an engine for economic and social change in the community, transforming the lives of residents in PQC’s under-resourced neighborhood while providing invaluable learning experiences for PQC students. To start, Paul Quinn College wants to focus on addressing the neighborhood’s most basic need – access to healthy food. A small historically black college in Dallas, TX, Paul Quinn College (PQC) is located in a food desert neighborhood – a low-income community with low access to fresh fruits and vegetables. PQC has already begun to address the community’s need for healthy food by starting the WE Over Me Farm on campus, but Michael Sorrel, President of PQC, wants to do more. To develop a strategy for creating healthy food access, PQC asked me to answer the following policy question. 1.1 Policy question (Section 2) How should Paul Quinn College create a social purpose business for healthy food access that spurs sustainable economic development in the surrounding under-resourced community? 1.2 Recommendations (Section 8) To create access to healthy food, spur community economic development, and provide educational opportunities to PQC students, I recommend that PQC pursue a small, limited-assortment format grocery store with an auxiliary business to supplement the grocery store’s revenue. I recommend that PQC build an 8,000 square-foot full-service store on the proposed on-campus site. Such a store is large enough to offer a full array of products and achieve some economies of scale in its sourcing. To capture the portion of the immediate market necessary to become financially viable, the PQC store should use its social mission to distinguish itself from its competitors, making itself a store of and for the community in the following ways. • PQC should focus on offering those products that are not available at nearby stores – fresh produce, quality dry goods, and healthy prepared food. • PQC should build a commercial kitchen into the grocery store to prepare quality food for a full-service deli. • Sourcing, where possible, from local producers will distinguish the PQC store from its competitors as well as increase the store’s beneficial impact on the local economy and the natural environment. • The PQC store should hire local residents, pay living wages, and offer benefits. • To gain traction in the community and develop customer loyalty, PQC should offer quality customer service and health education services, such as nutrition education. • To help ensure profitability, the PQC store should have an auxiliary business with higher profit margins, such as a catering business, a rentable commercial kitchen space, or socially responsible retail financial services. 1.3 Methodology (Section 3 and Appendix B) My strategy for answering the policy question included the following four major components. 1. Background research and a review of the relevant literature. (Section 4) 2. A grocery store market study of PQC’s neighborhood. (Section 5) 3. Case studies of related businesses and organizations. (Section 6) 4. Grocery store income statement under different scenarios. (Section 7) 1.4 Market study and financial analysis findings (Sections 5 and 7) As shown in Table 1.1, Highland Hills is much lower income than the United States as a whole with only $24,000 in median household income compared to $50,000 nationally. Area households spend about half as much on food for home consumption (food bought in a grocery store) than the national average and in total the neighborhood spends over $14 million each year on food at home. As shown in Table 1.2, residents within a 5-minute drive of PQC and not within a five-minute drive of a full-service grocery store spend about $8.2 million on groceries. Residents spend only $300,000 within this community, leaving $7.9 million in potential local revenue. With an 8,000 square-foot store, PQC would need to capture 35% of this surplus to generate typical grocery store revenue. To achieve $2.8 million in sales, each area household would need to spend about $18 per week at the PQC store.Item Open Access Determining the Criteria for Success in Social Ventures: A Case Study of Social Entrepreneurship(2010-12) Gumaste, VarunThis thesis attempts to provide a comprehensive list of factors that explain success in social entrepreneurship. In doing so, it defines success for social ventures to consist of three parts: 1) creating social impact, 2) ensuring implementation and survival, and 3) having the capacity to grow, expand, and develop. Based on previous literature of the field, a list of possible criteria of success is compiled, with groups of criteria associated with each of the three parts of the definition. The proposed factors associated with the first part are: 1) Presence of a Demonstrated Need and Identifiable Group of Beneficiaries, 2) Measured and Defined Impact, 3) Large Number of Beneficiaries. The factors related to the second part are: 1) Acceptance by the Community and Involvement of the Beneficiaries, 2) Social Capital, 3) Appropriate Level of Embeddedness, 4) Sound Financials and Reliable Source of Funding, 5) Dedication of the Leadership Team, 6) Relevant Work Experience, 7) Organized Structure with Well-Defined Responsibilities. The factors associated with the third part are: 1) Emphasis on Learning and Improvement, 2) Long-term cooperation with other organizations, 3) Drive to Expand and Grow. The goal of the study is to determine how effective these factors are at explaining success in grassroots development organizations. To do so, it utilizes a comparative case study of two social entrepreneurship models, microconsignment and microcredit, to systematically test each of the proposed criteria against differing models of the field. The results of the case study indicate that the literature, as it currently stands, does not comprehensively explain sustainability. Four of the proposed factors were removed, and 7 of the other 9 were all revised to some degree. This thesis also concludes that the existence of 9 commonalities between the two models studied lends credence to the concept of generalizing across the varied field of social entrepreneurship.Item Open Access Keeping it Beta: Social Innovation & The Black Church. A Case for Strategy, Design & Social Change.(2022) Cudjoe-Wilkes, Gabriella ElizabethGod created . . . and it was good. People of faith are a part of God’s work of creation that from the beginning of time has created and innovated without fail. A mantra of the ecumenical Black Church is that we serve a God who “keeps making a way out of no way!” Out of conditions of scarcity, malice, and hardship, enslaved Africans living in America created possibilities and opportunities for themselves. Fast forward to 2022, and that spirit of innovation still exists within the stories and lived experiences of African Americans across time.
In this work I will suggest that innovation must continue to be an intentional practice of the black church. Given the monumental changes brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, I am compelling leaders to move towards the work of innovation and to illuminate opportunities of innovation within church environments. I would argue that the ecumenical Black Church has led many movements of social impact and connectivity yet our language for describing that kind of work has been too limited. I’m interested in narrating and interpreting the work of the ecumenical Black Church through the lens and discipline of social innovation, traditioned innovation, design thinking, and strategy.
We are at an intersection and inflection point in 2022. Virtual sanctuaries have replaced physical ones. The average parishioner has not walked into a sanctuary in the past two years. How does that change our concept of innovation, outreach and strategy? As a former publicist, current brand strategist, and church planter, I am very interested in the way the ecumenical Black Church is being received in society right now. I’m interested in threading who the ecumenical Black Church has been and who it can be. This is a renaissance moment. Let’s join together and see what we can create. Let’s dream together.