In economics, we assume that all companies want to maximize profit and it usually makes sense that every move a company makes it caused by this incentive behind. On the other hand, in the past decade in business school the term “social entrepreneurship” has been rising up. Social entrepreneurship means that business people should also make social change to give up to the society while making money. In other words, companies are making too much money that they are willing to give up some of them to do some “good things”. However, it just generates them more money eventually.
TOMS, the fabric shoes company that has been getting more and more popular recently has a “One for One” business strategy, meaning that for each pair of shoes its customers buy, they will donate a pair to someone in need. However, how much of an impact is TOMS actually making? People in Africa would rather have more schools built and shoes that are durable on rocks and pebbles. Rather TOMS can simply just donate money to charities which has a much better idea of what those people really need. In my opinion, social entrepreneurship is just another business strategy to increase sales.
This is a response to an external blog entry – “The TOMS Footprint: Is ‘ One for One’ really the answer?” by Esther Tung, SFU