How Can Government Support Social Entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is about change, that is a shift from one paradigm to the other (Kuhn, 1962) or a discovery of an entirely new paradigm to solving a social concern. Nortuzi et Al (2010) present 5 strategies as adopted from public innovator (2008), through which government at different levels can support social entrepreneurship. This will go a long way in entrenching the practice among the teaming population of potential social entrepreneurs with the overall effect of promoting public good.


Encourage social innovation : For any entrepreneur, the start up period of an organization is critical. Government can encourage social innovation and help spur the promising new approaches to solving social problems.


Create an enabling environment for social innovation entrepreneurship : The very nature of innovation means that social entrepreneurs will be heading into new territory, and they often encounter unexpected Barriers alone the way as posited by Kuhn in his thesis "the structure of scientific revolution ". This can be assuaged by government endorsing and giving credibility to any landmark initiative in the are of social entrepreneurship.


Reward social-enterpreneurial initiatives for exceptional performance : Access to reliable sources of funding are essential to the growth and sustainable of solutions that works. By typing decisions about funding and purchasing to performance, government can help ensure that solutions that work will sustain and grow their impact.


Scale successful approaches : Expanding the reach of a proven solution is often critical if the solution is to become truly transformative. Getting people to accept a new paradigm require persistent effort (Kuhn, 1963). Government can intervene by expanding the reach of what works and enabling solutions to scale. This can be achieved through dissemination to the public of what works, publishing and expanding the coverage of what works.


Produce knowledge : Government already serves as a critical source of data and  standards that help entrepreneurs. Public innovators can play a critical role in ensuring that knowledge is produced, more clear standards are set, and data is easily accessible.


Summary
The world has reached a stage where citizens especially youth must appreciate the limit of government at various levels in meeting all need confronting humanity. Social entrepreneurship is a credible and promising avenue through which we can harness citizens energy and ingenuity to confront what may stand on the way of public good. We need to look at our society to examine and expand what works. Increased social entrepreneurial activities are of positive consequences for the society as this is capable of alleviating poverty, empowering members of society and improve the quality of life.