IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ssi/jouesi/v9y2022i4p225-242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Female social entrepreneurs in Africa creating social value through innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Cecile Nieuwenhuizen

    (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to identify the types and levels of innovations and the business categories of Female Social Entrepreneurs in Africa (FSEAs) and to determine how these FSEAs create social value in their societies. The database of Ashoka, an international organisation promoting exceptional social entrepreneurs, known as changemakers, were used to identify 142 FSEAs from 20 African countries. Schumpeter’s (1939) typology of innovation and Hamel and Breen’s (2007) hierarchy of innovation were used to determine the type and social value created and the FSEAs’ contribution to society. The results indicate that at 85%, most FSEAs have post-school qualifications, of which 43% have a degree and 24% post graduate qualifications. The business categories of the majority of FSEAs are in Education and Learning (30), Development and Prosperity (30), and Health and Fitness (21). Furthermore, the Schumpeterian type of innovation of the majority is Opening of New Markets (78) and Introduction of New Products or Services (46). The Hamel and Breen’s level of innovation of the majority of FSEAs is Product and Service Innovation (114). We found that the FSEAs identified and addressed important challenges in their communities through various types of innovation. This process created valuable social contributions to their communities, the broader society and, in some instances, other African countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Cecile Nieuwenhuizen, 2022. "Female social entrepreneurs in Africa creating social value through innovation," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 9(4), pages 225-242, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:9:y:2022:i:4:p:225-242
    DOI: 10.9770/jesi.2022.9.4(12)
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/36/Nieuwenhuizen_Female_social_entrepreneurs_in_Africa_creating_social_value_through_innovation.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/969
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.9770/jesi.2022.9.4(12)?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maribel Guerrero & David Urbano, 2021. "Looking inside the determinants and the effects of entrepreneurial innovation projects in an emerging economy," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 365-393, March.
    2. Ashwini Deshpande & Smriti Sharma, 2013. "Entrepreneurship or Survival? Caste and Gender of Small Business in India," Working papers 228, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    3. Joseph Schumpeter, 1909. "On the Concept of Social Value," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 23(2), pages 213-232.
    4. Paul Robson & Bernard Obeng, 2008. "The Barriers to Growth in Ghana," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 385-403, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agnė Šimelytė & Manuela Tvaronavičienė, 2022. "Technology Transfer from Nordic Capital Parenting Companies to Lithuanian and Estonian Subsidiaries or Joint Capital Companies: The Analysis of the Obtained Primary Data," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-23, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reeg, Caroline, 2015. "Micro and small enterprises as drivers for job creation and decent work," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    2. Subash Sasidharan & S. N. Rajesh Raj, 2014. "The Growth Barriers of Informal Sector Enterprises: Evidence from India," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 52(4), pages 351-375, December.
    3. Francesco Quatraro & Marco Vivarelli, 2015. "Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Post-entry Performance of Newborn Firms in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 277-305.
    4. Thiago Dumont Oliveira & Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak, 2016. "Lionel Robbins’ first-step individualism and the prehistory of microfoundations," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 537, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    5. Jack High, 2011. "Dr. Anderson and the Austrians: Price formation as a cumulative process," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 199-211, June.
    6. Andreas Koulouris & Ioannis Katerelos & Theodore Tsekeris, 2013. "Multi-Equilibria Regulation Agent-Based Model of Opinion Dynamics in Social Networks," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 11(1), pages 51-70.
    7. Adomako, Samuel & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Donbesuur, Francis & Ahsan, Mujtaba & Danso, Albert & Uddin, Moshfique, 2022. "Strategic agility of SMEs in emerging economies: Antecedents, consequences and boundary conditions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6).
    8. Subha Mani & Saurabh Singhal & Smriti Sharma & Utteeyo Dasgupta, 2016. "Caste differences in behaviour and personality: Evidence from India," WIDER Working Paper Series 060, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mukherjee, Anirban & Saha, Sarani & Shukla, Divya, 2023. "Caste, courts and business," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 333-365.
    10. Cecil E. Bohanon, 2012. "A Pedagogical Note on Bastiat’s Restraint of Trade," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 27(Spring 20), pages 144-150.
    11. Edward Wheatcroft & Henry P. Wynn & Victoria Volodina & Chris J. Dent & Kristina Lygnerud, 2021. "Model-Based Contract Design for Low Energy Waste Heat Contracts: The Route to Pricing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, June.
    12. Chakraborty, Tanika & Mukherjee, Anirban & Saha, Sarani & Shukla, Divya, 2021. "Caste, Courts and Business," GLO Discussion Paper Series 935, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Ashwini Deshpande & Smriti Sharma, 2016. "Disadvantage and discrimination in self-employment: caste gaps in earnings in Indian small businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 325-346, February.
    14. Paul Robson & Charles Akuetteh & Paul Westhead & Mike Wright, 2012. "Innovative opportunity pursuit, human capital and business ownership experience in an emerging region: evidence from Ghana," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 603-625, October.
    15. van der Have, Robert P. & Rubalcaba, Luis, 2016. "Social innovation research: An emerging area of innovation studies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1923-1935.
    16. Johan Karlsson, 2021. "Firm size and growth barriers: a data-driven approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1319-1338, October.
    17. Alexander Coad & Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, 2008. "The Growth and Decline of Small firms In Developing Countries," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2008-08, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    18. Salmon Mugoda & Stephen Esaku & Rose Kibuka Nakimu & Edward Bbaale & Robert Read, 2020. "The portrait of Uganda’s informal sector: What main obstacles do the sector face?," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1843255-184, January.
    19. Alan Kirman, 2016. "Complexity and Economic Policy: A Paradigm Shift or a Change in Perspective? A Review Essay on David Colander and Roland Kupers's Complexity and the Art of Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(2), pages 534-572, June.
    20. Adomako, Samuel & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Frimpong, Kwabena, 2022. "Human capital, reverse engineering and new venture growth: The moderating role of competitive strategy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Africa; female; innovation; social entrepreneurs; social value;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O35 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Social Innovation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:9:y:2022:i:4:p:225-242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Manuela Tvaronaviciene (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.