Relevance of Systems Thinking and Scientific Holism to Social Entrepreneurship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2015
Department 1
Management
Abstract
Social enterprises are said to meet two conditions—they address long-standing social problems, and they develop innovative solutions to do so. However, many social enterprises satisfy these two conditions but are unsuccessful in creating sustained positive social change. This article argues that a necessary condition for social enterprises to create and sustain social change is the ability to recognize the ecology of the social problem—the relationship and interaction between a social problem and its context. This article scrutinizes how social enterprises conceptualize and address social problems by applying the principles of scientific holism and systems thinking to social entrepreneurial theory and practice. It presents social problem archetypes and develops key lessons for devising effective strategies for addressing social problems.
DOI
10.1177/0971355714560658
Recommended Citation
Trivedi, Chitvan, and Shalini Misra. "Relevance of Systems Thinking and Scientific Holism to Social Entrepreneurship." Journal of Entrepreneurship 24.1 (March 2015), 37-62.
Comments
Original version is available from the publisher at: http://joe.sagepub.com/content/24/1/37.short