Fostering Resilient Communities

Entrepreneurs, as we discussed in chapter 2, recognize and pursue opportunities to change the world. For instance, they bring new products or services to the market, such as offering an automobile that has a bundle of features other cars do not have or starting a landscaping business in an area currently underserved, in the hope that potential customers will find these new products or services valuable. Similarly, entrepreneurs start social enterprises in an attempt to solve social problems, such as opening an after-school program for troubled teenagers or organizing a petition to change a city ordinance to prevent the dumping of trash in a particular area. They undertake these social enterprises in the hope that the lives of community members will improve and potential donors and volunteers, who are also concerned about these problems, will believe these social enterprises are helping to solve them. Given that the future is unknowable, an entrepreneur’s hopes could prove to be overly optimistic, in which case his enterprise will not succeed. If an entrepreneur’s hopes prove to be well-founded, however, she will provide goods and services that people actually desire, she will earn profits and/or receive donations, she will attract employees and/or volunteers, her organization will thrive, and she will advance broader social change. Purchasing landscaping services might allow working parents to spend their Sunday afternoons engaging with their children rather than caring for their lawn. Participating in an after-school program might alter the life of a disadvantaged student, increasing the likelihood she will obtain a college education and pursue a career she previously believed was beyond her reach. Entrepreneurs are, thus, social change agents who, despite the radical uncertainty we all necessarily confront in the world, notice, cultivate, and exploit opportunities to bring about economic, social, political, institutional, ideological, and cultural transformations.