RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

240 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The role of the social co-creators has a larger scope than the one of the individual co-creator,
as they could be engaged both in social service provision and also in designing products for
companies which bear the qualities and elements of social products, such as healthcare, education
and basic community services. Hence, the social co-creator can be defined as an
entrepreneurial co-creator, targeting social benefit by establishing a more satisfactory market
production equilibrium.
Finally, the community co-creator is one who functions as an intermediary between the
larger community and the business unit. The community co-creator could participate in value
co-creation for a particular community or several communities by engaging in various activities
with social as well as business value. Such interaction could be established particularly
in reviving cultural and historical objects, in creating habitats for the marginalized social groups
and in building infrastructure for community purposes.
The development and application of the suggested hybrid model can bring further implications
for research in the field of social entrepreneurship and co-creation in their joint effort
to contribute to alleviating individual and communal social problems. Moreover, this model
has the potential to tighten the relation between the genuinely business-oriented goals of
entrepreneurial undertakings and their involvement in activities with social impact. Finally,
considering the close interrelation between the three distinguished forms in the hybrid structure,
it is expected that they can be well combined and coordinated to transform towards sustainability
the practices of a single business unit or a group of such private undertakings.
Conclusion
Although environmental issues have been broadly discussed in the context of developing
sustainable business practices, the social dimension needs further research both in terms of
definitions and effective models.
This paper aimed to explore the role of social entrepreneurship and co-creation as new
paradigms in business transformation towards sustainability and thus to provide a solid ground,
on which hybrid models can be developed and implemented to join the efforts of entrepreneurs,
co-creators and social entrepreneurs. The analysis proposed such a hybrid model, which has
the potential to further contribute to the process of understanding and developing social value
creation. The new model provides a ground of interaction between individuals, organizations
and communities and introduces the concept of “social co-creation”. It suggests that this hybrid
form has the potential to both encourage businesses to build value together with clients and
at the same time to engage entrepreneurs in contributing to social causes with individual as
well as community impacts.
Notes
i
Mair, J. & Marti, I. (2004). Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Source of Explanation, Prediction,
and Delight. Working Paper No 546. IESE Business School, University of Navarra.
ii
Martin, R. L. & Osberg, S. (2007). Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition. Stanford Social
Innovation Review. Retrieved from www.ssir.org
iii
Creative destruction – a state at which the new venture and its related ventures effectively render existing
products, services, and business models obsolete.