Great Expectations: A Multi Theoretical Model of Social Entrepreneurship Startup

Abstract

Organisations with a social purpose emerge as part of the social innovation process to address new needs or issues. They aim to achieve a social purpose rather than provide profit for their owners. Change processes are fluid. They may not be effective until positioned within a formal entity, so new organisations are needed for social innovation to be durable. New organisations offer a base, a point of contact to engage the outside world, a site to gather resources and harness the contribution of volunteers into a coordinated set of actions (Spear, 2000). They provide a site in which ideas can be tested, shaped, and structured into action (Mulgan, 2006a). They legitimise new concepts in the public arena, act as the conduit of ideas and give the idea a public voice (Barraket, 2001a). Small social purpose organisations operate as precariously vulnerable ventures in the social economy rather than the market economy. They are numerous, but the exact number is not known (Lyons, 2001), especially those that are at an early stage of development since they are difficult to locate. In excess of 440,000 are estimated to operate in Australia as small nonprofit ventures with no employees (Productivity Commission, 2010). An unknown number function as small commercial ventures with no paid staff. This is a large set of organisations that are a valuable part of civil society, but they are largely unrecognised in the literature and are not well researched. Little is known about how they start or how they organise to deliver their goods and services.