EXAMINING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: INSIGHTS FROM SOCIAL ENTERPRISE GHANA

ABSTRACT There has been a widespread appreciation of the concept of social entrepreneurship across the globe and this concludes that its importance cannot be overemphasized in all aspects.Social entrepreneurship in the Ghanaian environment is emerging and currently few social enterprises operate in the country, none has however been able to achieve a national scale nor reached medium-sized operations. Not much of literature on social entrepreneurship is available for consideration in Africa; the little available is mostly in South and East Africa with West Africa and Ghana inclusive are relegated to the background. The literature on the activities of social entrepreneurs in Ghana is scanty, the question is, why is there not so much interest in the subject? In the view of the researcher, these are matters of investable inquiry, hence the study seeks to examine social entrepreneurship: insights from “Social Enterprise Ghana”. Social enterprise Ghana is an association of social entrepreneurs in Ghana. A qualitative approach using multiple case study design was used. An interview involving members of Social Enterprise Ghana was analysed. The study showed that even though social enterprises display knowledge on social entrepreneurship, their ability to sustain the organisation, in the long run, is a difficulty since their knowledge of sustainability and innovation is ambiguous. Furthermore, the findings indicated that two main models of social enterprise were used; the profit with a social mission and the non-profit with earned strategies models are used in Ghana. Also, the findings revealed the social enterprises acquire resources along these lines as corporate, managerial, network and reputation, however, reputation is most important especially to males in establishing social enterprises than females. For women, however, network is most important. The study, therefore, recommends that these social enterprises be creative in developing models which would help in generating revenue for their activities which would further aid in their scaling up.