Blog #1 - Cooperation or Competition: The Social Entrepreneur's Dilemma

Our primary focus last week was ‘Social Venture Ideation’ and how to identify viable startup projects. In Michael Skok’s Forbes article, “4 Steps to Building a CompellingValue Proposition”, Skok emphasized the importance of whether or not a social venture produces a rare and distinguishable improvement to society. However, Skoks mentioned that the key to this type of effective solution is if it can benefit ALL stakeholders (even the most skeptical of potential customers, colleagues, contributors, etc.).

This idea of mutual gain led me to read “Models of Start-up Thinking and Action:Theoretical, Empirical and Pedagogical Approaches” by Professor Jerome Katz and Professor Andrew C. Corbett. Essentially, their research found that the most successful social ventures were those where entrepreneurs pushed for strategic stakeholder cooperation. Katz and Corbett found that the social venture projects that aimed for win-win situations had the highest levels of social impact and success. For instance, if various stakeholders (e.g. key contributors/donors) come to a consensus and reach a goal which is in alignment with a social entrepreneur’s vision, it could lead to effective allocation of resources and a more prosperous social venture project. However, Katz and Corbett also played devil’s advocate and presented the reality of competitive commercial entrepreneurship. Although strategic cooperation is favorable, entrepreneurs often feel the need to be competitive risk-takers and tend to refrain from collaborative efforts.

In light of all this, I analyzed my own social venture idea and where it fell on the spectrum of stakeholder cooperation and competition. I asked myself whether or not my solution could benefit all students, parents, teachers, volunteers, donors, community members/leaders, and similar organizations, etc. To give some context, my initial social venture was called “Impact Youth”. In brief, this organization would strive to help at-risk youth in urban communities of lower socioeconomic status immerse themselves in creative programs and engage with their communities. By providing the children with various extracurricular and recreational activities like art, creative writing, and breakdancing, our end-goal was to encourage and inspire the youth to make a positive difference in their neighborhoods. The distinguishing factor in “Impact Youth” that differentiated it with all other after-school programs was the service aspect -- it created a greater incentive for local government and independent organizations/donors to want to support our venture. By giving the children creative outlets and keeping them away from potentially negative influences on the streets, the youth would be empowered to advocate for a safer, more vibrant community setting. After thorough investigation of similar non-profit organizations, I came to the conclusion that this incentive system would only work in a perfect utopia. The fact that each and every stakeholder has their own agenda and self-interest could prove to be fatal to the success rate of these types of ventures. Ultimately, this is a question we must all ask ourselves as we continue our social venture development process: Does my social venture promote stakeholder cooperation, or does it make them default to their natural competitive behavior?