How Social Entrepreneurship Impacts Society’s Quality of Life

Social entrepreneurship is one of the key pillars for the development and prosperity of societies. It offers radical and sustainable solutions to face social challenges through innovative projects established by social entrepreneurs. There is no doubt that social entrepreneurship plays a radical role in achieving Vision 2030's goals since it falls under the Vision's three primary themes: a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation. Moreover, social entrepreneurship strives to realize goals related to entrepreneurship development and promotion. It achieves sustainability in its broad sense, and not just the financial one, as it attempts to find innovative solutions for development-related problems, whether social, economic, or environmental. These solutions consequently generate an economic impact that contributes to a higher GDP.

In this article, we elaborate on the concepts of social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs. Then, we discuss the most important traits that distinguish a social entrepreneur. We also present examples of prominent Saudi social enterprises in the education, human resources, and social development sectors that seek to improve the quality of life of young people who are the backbone of Saudi Vision 2030. Finally, we tackle the three levels of impact of social entrepreneurship on society.

Social entrepreneurship is a form of entrepreneurship. It is based on an applicable innovative idea that aims at resolving a social issue by using and making the most of available limited resources to achieve a sustainable social impact. Researchers and writers are yet to reach an agreement on the definition of social entrepreneurship, with key definitions including:

• Hiber, Hogg, and others define it as an entrepreneurial project that targets achieving societal benefits rather than financial profits.
• The Social Entrepreneurship Institute defines it as the art of achieving material profits and intrinsic societal value from investment projects.
• Fowler defines social entrepreneurship as "the process of establishing applicable economic and social structures, as well as relationships, institutions, and practices that maximize social benefits."

Despite the presence of multiple definitions of social entrepreneurship among researchers, they all agree that it essentially revolves around finding innovative solutions to solve society's problems while trying to make the most out of the limited resources in order to make a real and sustainable change. Furthermore, social entrepreneurship presents solutions that can be applied to any society or tailored to certain societal conditions. It is not restricted by any local context. Therefore, the success of social entrepreneurship can be measured based on its scalability and ability to reach other communities.

According to the Canadian Technology Review's definition, social entrepreneurial businesses follow one of these two models:

1. A non-profit model with strategies to find sources of income for the social enterprise. Here, the latter carries out social and commercial activities to achieve self-sufficiency, as it reuses profit returns to continue investing in the project and improve the provided societal value.
2. A profitable model with strategies driven by the enterprise's societal values. In this case, the enterprise carries out social and commercial activities at the same time to achieve sustainability. In this model, the enterprise is considered financially independent, allowing thus the founders and investors to make personal profits as well.

Now, you may be wondering: What is a social entrepreneur? It is a person with a creative mind who is aware of society's issues. Driven by a sense of responsibility, a social entrepreneur seeks to come up with a creative idea to solve one of these issues. Academic studies suggest several definitions for a "social entrepreneur". According to Fishman, Labarre, and others, social entrepreneurs are individuals who decided to innovate in the face of deep societal challenges and to come up with new pragmatic ideas. On their part, Thompson, Alvy, and Lees say that social entrepreneurs are people who realize that there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet and who gather together the necessary resources and use them to ‘make a difference’.

Key traits that distinguish a social entrepreneur are:

1. Sufficient knowledge and awareness of societal issues.
2. Self-confidence in one’s own abilities and potential to bring about change.
3. Creativity in thinking and finding solutions by making use of untapped resources.
4. Entrepreneurial spirit and generosity towards the community.
5. Positive reaction towards community problems and finding solutions to them.
6. Ability to inspire others and convince them to make real changes within communities.

There is no doubt that social enterprises play an effective role across different sectors in improving the quality of life and well-being of communities, making thus life easier and better for everyone. Jasser is one example of social enterprises in Saudi Arabia bridging the gap between the academic sector and the labor market.

Jasser is a certified social enterprise incubated in 2020 by STC InspireU in its ImpactU program, which supports social entrepreneurship and sustainability projects.

Jasser is the first platform to connect the academic sector to the labor market. It offers innovative, low-cost solutions for corporate and SME projects. University students can access this platform for their study projects and academics use it for research purposes. Jasser is closely linked to Vision 2030, especially in regards to the booming economy. Jasser aims at guiding and supporting the youth in solving real-life problems in the labor market by building an education system compatible with market needs in addition to equipping students with the skills and tools needed for future jobs.

Since its launch, Jasser has signed partnerships with over 5 public universities and more than 500 university students have leveraged its services. Moreover, the company delivered over 100 projects, offering corporate solutions to more than 90 companies based in the Kingdom.

Jasser offers universities a service that transforms course-related projects to practical projects that are in harmony with the labor market. This service aims at enhancing and developing the university educational experience, helping to create a suitable environment for students to grow their passion in the different labor market areas and expand their practical knowledge throughout their studies, even prior to joining cooperative training, graduating, or looking for jobs. This enables students to explore their specializations in a practical way early on and introduces them to areas of the labor market that suit their passions and interests.

Another example of social enterprises in the Saudi human resource and social development sector is KEYSS, which provides assistance to Saudi youth helping them to fully understand all aspects of their ambition, passion, and purpose in life. This way, they are able to manage their lives effectively and contribute to the prosperity of the country's economy.

The urgent need to launch KEYSS was the result of observations made by social entrepreneur, Dr. Sarah Ghaleb, the company's co-founder, who spent over 10 years training thousands of young entrepreneurs from all over the Kingdom. One of her most prominent observations is the failure and unsustainability of many emerging projects that do not align with the passion of entrepreneurs, causing start-up owners heavy financial losses.  

Therefore, KEYSS offers an integrated training program for young Saudis to help them discover their purpose, passion, and calling in life in order to promote human development, inspire young people to think, and unleash all skills that they need to have a bright academic future and to embark on a promising career path.

• In the short term, the positive impact of these social enterprises is reflected through tangible changes on the community's economy.
• In the medium term, social enterprises improve the society's situation and increase its welfare, while raising productivity and organizing developmental projects. 
• In the long term, the contribution of social enterprises is gauged by their ability to create and invest in social capital.

In conclusion, after learning about the two concepts of social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs and examining examples of Saudi social enterprises that are significantly contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of society and young people in particular, one can safely say that social entrepreneurship emanates from the minds of entrepreneurs who come up with new ideas to solve major issues entrenched in society. They refuse to rest before reaching their goals and contributing to the community's development and advancement. In the near future, we hope to witness more of these societal entrepreneurship ideas across various sectors and fields to contribute to the community's development and advancement by 2030.

References: 

1. Amal Khairy Amin, Experiences in Social Entrepreneurship - The Art of Community Innovation, Kai University Publications, 2nd Electronic Edition, 2019.
2. InspireU Program - ImpactU projects, dated September 22, 2021.
3. Social entrepreneurship and the role of King Khalid Foundation (2021), dated September 29, 2021.
4. Ethraa TV (2020), Discover Your Passion, Tanween Event.  Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Dated September 22, 2021.
5.  Abu-Saifan, S. (2012).  Social Entrepreneurship: Definition and Boundaries.  Technology Innovation Management Review, 2(2), 22-27.