Abstract
Social enterprises have proven to be an effective mechanism for addressing economic, social, and environment problems in a number of countries. While conventional businesses have, in general, encountered difficult times during the COVID-19 pandemic, online businesses have tended to register success as a direct result of mobility constraints imposed on multinational or regional value-chains during this time. Social enterprises have continued to demonstrate their value as reservoirs of social and economic resilience during this unprecedented global crisis. Thought leaders like Muhammad Yunus see micro-economies, comprising locally focused social businesses linked digitally into distant value chains, as a viable strategy for economic growth in difficult times to achieve the SDGs. This chapter examines the potential of strategic business collaborations between social enterprises in Australia and South Asia that can leverage crowdfunding as a tool for mutual advantage and explores opportunities and challenges for Australian interests entering the financial services sector in South Asia.
TopBackground Literature
COVID-19 has created unprecedented damage to established global equilibrium. Apart from the drastic health crisis caused by the pandemic, 2020 saw the highest rise in the global extreme poverty rate in more than 20 years. Over 2.3 billion people are unable to eat a healthy balanced diet on a regular basis, while an additional 119 – 124 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty because of disruptions in education and job losses (UNSTATS, 2021). The pandemic has uncovered the deepening inequalities within and among countries (Jomo & Chowdhury, 2020, UNSTATS, 2021). The crisis underscores global interdependency as well as the interlinkages between health and well-being, social, economic, and environment, and international cooperation that serve to safeguard financial stability in a world of technological changes and innovations (Barua, 2021; United Nation, 2021; Vučinić, 2020). A disruption of this magnitude demands that innovative multinational measures to create future resilience be designed and implemented (Jomo & Chowdhury, 2020; Ziegler & Shneor, 2021).
There is agreement across diverse terminologies and operational practices, that a social enterprise is characterised by the social value it creates as a by-product of its business, and not merely personal or shareholder wealth (Austin et al., 2006; Teasdale, 2011; Yunus et al., 2010). This chapter defines social enterprise as an organisation whose commercial activities generate income to sustain their primary social mission. Social enterprise has emerged as a strategy for social, economic, and environmental improvement both nationally and internationally (Defourny & Nyssens, 2010; Mair et al., 2012).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Crowdfunding: Funding a project contributing from a number of people through the internet.
Digital inclusion: inclusiveness of everyone to use online technology to improve quality of life and promote knowledge and wellbeing of the whole society.
Stakeholder: A group of people who may gain advantages or disadvantages from an issue of interest.
Microfinance: A provision of small amount of loans to people who may not have access to regular banking services.
Social Enterprise Ecosystem: Contextual structures and functions in the society that could support or deteriorate social enterprise development.
Value Constellation: Interactive activities that create value, especially among internal and external stakeholders.
Social Enterprise: An organisation operating with an element of commercial activities to generate a considerable amount of income to sustain their primary social mission.