Innovation In Social Entrepreneurship

We are in a world that is changing: the population is growing, the urban regions are taking more space than rural areas, the poverty gap is getting bigger in certain cities and we know we will soon or later face the scarcity of natural resources. Social entrepreneurship tries to respond to these issues, usually concentrating more on issues like lack of education, poverty, hunger, bad health system, etc. through innovation. Social entrepreneurship is viewed as "a process that catalyzes social change and addresses important social needs in a way that is not dominated by direct financial benefits for the entrepreneurs" (Mair & Marti, 2006). It requires a unique kind of individual; this individual must be driven, innovative, creative, resourceful, and inspired by the desire to improve their community. The "traditional" entrepreneur must discover a gap in the market for a product or service that its target market desires or will desire. A social entrepreneur however, must also do this and, in addition, must seek to fulfill a need that is socially fulfilling and that seeks to improve society as a whole. The beauty of social entrepreneurship is that it encourages the innovative entrepreneur to tackle the tough social problems that the government and other efforts have failed to aid.