RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

232 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
efit from the transformational power, thus making sustainability a key success factor. Hence,
a number of models have been proposed and implemented for transforming business practices
towards sustainability (Dobreva, 2015; Edelkraut, 2014).
Although the environmental aspect of business sustainability has been widely analyzed,
the social dimension needs further research, especially with regard to the identification and
introduction of new paradigms. Particularly, there are two basic approaches to business transformations
towards sustainability which deserve to be further explored – co-creation and social
entrepreneurship.
On the one hand, social entrepreneurship is an innovative form of business, which successfully
combines social aims and commercial practice (Koleva & Dobreva, 2015). Every
entrepreneurship is to a certain extent social entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship
has as a goal to show the public sector how to be more effective and efficient. It has emerged
as a response to chronic social problems: unemployment, poverty, community fragmentation,
etc. The field has gradually expanded to include the promotion, support, and network of those
committed to make the world a cleaner, more-equitable, healthier, and a better-educated place
(Masseti, 2008). Social entrepreneurship works where the government cannot work due to
the lack of funding, and the business does not want to because of low profitability. In most
cases social entrepreneurship is about the resourcefulness and the intelligence of the
entrepreneurs to do something good or something needed by society.
In addition, companies experience a common trend of value creation that combines both
the vision for business expansion and the necessity to meet the ever changing needs and expectations
of the clients (Ind, Iglesias & Schultz, 2013). The modern idea of co-creation derives
from three areas. First, the emergence and widespread adoption of digital communications
from the 1990s onwards has enabled individuals to connect themselves in networks and communities.
Second, in an attempt to become close to customers and to understand better their
behavior, organizations have recognized that they can become part of the customer experience.
Third, the increasing emphasis within marketing thinking on the exchange of intangibles
has changed the focus from the act of purchase to usage. When individuals approach a
co-creation process, they do so with an existing perception of the brand that frames their expectations,
and as the process develops, it influences how they create and evaluate ideas.
The aim of this paper is to explore the role of social entrepreneurship and co-creation for
achieving sustainable business transformations. It provides an overview of the two concepts
and their importance for the development of today’s enterprises. Furthermore, the analysis
establishes a link between different forms of social entrepreneurship and co-creation and elaborates
on their contribution to the development and implementation of sustainable business
practices. To build a sound interrelation, the analysis introduces a new model of interaction
between individuals, organizations and communities, as well as the concept of “social cocreation”.
It suggests that this hybrid form has the potential to both encourage business to
build value together with clients and at the same time to engage entrepreneurs in contributing
to social causes.
Section 2 provides a brief methodology and explains the methods undertaken to identify
the findings. Section 3 of the paper discusses the role of social entrepreneurship and its contribution
to the overall business transformation towards sustainability. In Section 4 the analysis
outlines the main characteristics of co-creation and its contribution to developing sustainable
business practices. The correlation between social entrepreneurship and co-creation is established
in Section 5. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the main points of the analysis.