As described in lectures, social enterprises are firms that exist in order to provide a product or service while serving their respective communities in the social, environmental or cultural fields. However, one of the main aspects of these firms are to eventually retain profits. This does not take away from the firms social, environmental or cultural goals, but provides incentives for them to innovate their practices and in turn improve the standards for the fields they are interested in enhancing. For instance, if a firm exists for the purpose of cleaning the environment, all the while earning profits, their decisions to lower costs by purchasing less capitol and more labour – provided this lowers their production costs – can not only earn them higher profits but will create new jobs and reduce pollution on the environment (since machines are more likely to release pollutants than people). Although, certain professionals believe that newer methods may increase social enterprises’ chances of profitability. For example, a blog written on the Canada Business Network named How Social Media Can Be Used By Social Enterprises (http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/blog/entry/4364/) explains that the use of online networking may improve these firms’ abilities to practice their environmental, cultural or social duties and to do so more effectively. The author states that social media can increase these social enterprises chances of “making partnerships…identifying financial contributors…recruiting volunteers with the right skills…crowd sourcing new ideas or solutions…[and] promoting [their] mission” (Canada Business Network 2013). Personally, I agree with these ideas because I see social media as a strong method of ensuring sustainability in the marketing aspects of companies which can increase consumer awareness. Also, since the goals of these firms are to improve social, environmental or cultural aspects of the regions they practice in, increased awareness can cause these firms to be more successful because then more people will actually be aware of what the firm is doing. In example, reconsider the firm whose aim was to improve environmental standards in their community; increased awareness of their goals can cause society to decrease their pollution (through correct marketing methods) or even increase the amount of volunteers the firm has. The former would decrease their costs since there would be less pollution to prevent, and the ladder would also decrease their costs since they would have to pay a lesser average for their labour costs. Overall, social enterprises must seek profits in the long run; the use of online networking can increase their chances of profitability and also causes them to innovate and improve their social, environmental or cultural duties.
Works Cited:
“How Social Media Can Be Used by Social enterprises.” Canada Business Network. Government of Canada, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/blog/entry/4364/>.
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