Creative talents in their early twenties who live in rural communities are more likely than any other age or regional group in the UK to launch a company dedicated to social enterprise.
The nation’s largest probe into the profile of budding social entrepreneurs found that 18-24-year-olds are almost twice as likely as the over 50s to pursue a socially-minded venture.
Mirroring the pattern of traditional entrepreneurship, men are dominating the sector, with those in full-time education the keenest to make a social or community difference.
However, these community-conscious males are more likely than their mainstream business counterparts to have failed to gain access to finance due exclusively to the nature of their proposition.
Upon sourcing a finance scheme, the costs involved are seen as the biggest barrier to turning a social dream into a commercial reality, says the report from The London Business School.
Overall, it found that budding social entrepreneurs have more positive attitudes than the UK population, and are more optimistic about business than mainstream entrepreneurs.
But the economic potential of social enterprise in the UK is not being realised, the report authors warned, as its early stage practitioners are, “constrained by the very realistic fear of not getting finance.”
Unveiling the findings, Dr Rebecca Harding said it was important to explore what motivates a social entrepreneur. After all, it is their socially-minded ventures that play a role in generating wealth in the UK that “cannot be understated.”
Wealth generation, in terms of jobs, income and community welfare are among the greatest rewards of social enterprise, which suggests the sector has “tremendous power to transform and change society,” she said.
In a statement, Dr Harding added that aside from the economic perks of community visionaries armed with a business plan, social entrepreneurship can tackle important social concerns, which may “be a better driver of regeneration and employment in deprived communities than orthodox activity”.
Elsewhere, the data revealed training schemes could be the master key to unlock the economic potential of social enterprise, in light of evidence that underrepresented groups, such as women, are more likely to start-up after skills or education schemes.
But policy-makers should also focus on Black Africans and Black Caribbeans, given the finding that they are, respectively, three times and twice more likely than Whites to be social entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, urbanities emerged as less likely to launch a social enterprise than their rural counterparts.
“The government is placing increasing emphasis on social entrepreneurship following its recent review,” Dr Harding explained.
“The report demonstrates that training can have a huge impact on levels of social entrepreneurial activity amongst women in particular. If we are to build an entrepreneurial culture around this new, socially and environmentally sustainable business model then we should be attempting to change cultures and attitudes from school upwards.
“Our evidence suggests that training would be a good way of doing this, especially for excluded groups.”
The London Business School said most social entrepreneurs, regardless of their background, age or gender, are less positive in their day-to-day outlook than mainstream owner-managers.
“It appears from the data that they become more disillusioned with entrepreneurship and see fewer opportunities, are more likely to fear failure and less likely to see it as a good career choice.”
Jun 14, 2006
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