Page 98 - University of Pretoria RESEARCH REVIEW 2018

Understanding social enterprises Anastacia Mamabolo and Kerrin Myres, GIBS
Across the country, tens of thousands of social enterprises and non-governmental organisations – from a single person to national organisations employing hundreds of people – are working to improve the quality of life for marginalised South Africans.
Anastacia Mamabolo
Social enterprises, defined as organisations that use innovation and entrepreneurial methods to solve social and environmental challenges, are clearly important to South Africa’s future. Yet, as analysis has shown, relatively little is known about social enterprises in South Africa, a gap in understanding that would make it difficult to strengthen support for such organisations.
The GIBS Entrepreneurship Development Academy recently conducted the first national study
of South Africa’s social enterprises. The study, led by Dr Kerrin Myres and Dr Anastacia Mamabolo, was undertaken in collaboration with the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCT Graduate School of Business.
The team screened over 33 780 organisations to identify 453 social enterprises for inclusion in the survey. Telephonic interviews were conducted
with all respondents qualifying as ‘social enterprises’ on the basis of their social impact, and economic sustainability.
A comprehensive set of data was generated in the process, with
several notable findings. To illustrate: social enterprises are typically small, employing fewer than 10 people; over 65% reported levels of growth above inflation; most have been operating for over three years and expected their organisations to grow rapidly in future. Most importantly, the social enterprises in the study reported being able to operate independently of donor funding, making them viable and sustainable, even as they innovate to solve social problems in under- served communities.
Some of the findings were published in the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship in 2018. The research group also published a Stakeholder Report that summarises the data collected and includes profiles of successful social enterprises from across South Africa, further enhancing our understanding of their practices. These two outputs, with others in the pipeline, provide
an overview and understanding of
the state of social entrepreneurship
in South Africa, which is a necessary foundation for any strategy and future policy initiatives, entrepreneurship practice, as well as a basis for further research on social enterprises.
Kerrin Myres