A Linkage between Creating Shared Value and Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

In recent years, the capitalist system has been under severe pressure from the public, being blamed as a major cause of economic, environmental, and social problems. The urgency to effectively cope with the consequences of this phenomenon is now significantly felt more than before. During the last couple of decades, several socially related topics including Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and more recently, Creating Shared Value (CSV), and Social Entrepreneurship (SE) have emerged. This thesis will examine the role of CSV and SE, in tackling mentioned consequences. CSV suggested by Porter and Krammer, is considered as a new approach of examining social matters while also emphasizing on the importance of other approaches in particular SE. The paper also demonstrates how CSV can enhance the application of SE by applying three levels of CSV: Re-conceiving products and market, redefining productivity in value chain, and developing the local clusters. In this study, CSV is considered as the final destination in the social responsibility path, with SE as the transitional vehicle. In latter part of this thesis, the concepts will be further discussed through the case studies of Nestle, the Grameen Bank, and TOMS shoes. Keywords: Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Creating Shared Value (CSV), Social Entrepreneurship (SE), Nestlé, the Grameen Bank, and TOMS shoes.