Social entrepreneurship: Creating new business models to serve the poor Christian Seelos a , Johanna Mair b, * a Sustainable Strategies Consulting Group, C/ Topazi 5B, 08012 Barcelona, Spain b IESE Business School, Avda. Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, Spain Abstract The term bsocial entrepreneurshipQ (SE) is used to refer to the rapidly growing number of organizations that have created models for efficiently catering to basic human needs that existing markets and institutions have failed to satisfy. Social entrepreneurship combines the resourcefulness of traditional entrepreneurship with a mission to change society. One social entrepreneur, Ibrahim Abouleish, recently received the bAlternative Nobel PrizeQ for his Sekem initiative; in 2004, e-Bay founder Jeff Skoll donated 4.4 million pounds to set up a social entrepreneurship research center; and many social entrepreneurs have mingled with their business counterparts at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Social entrepreneurship offers insights that may stimulate ideas for more socially acceptable and sustainable business strategies and organizational forms. Because it contributes directly to internationally recognized sustainable development (SD) goals, social entrepreneur- ship may also encourage established corporations to take on greater social responsibility. D 2004 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. 1. Services are failing the poor Human needs and wants are fundamental drivers of companies’ decisions as to which products or services to produce. Yet, despite the seemingly unlimited nature of human needs, companies struggle to find new markets and value proposi- tions, and for large corporations the quest for growth has become a holy grail. Two fundamental rules seem to apply. First, in industrialized countries, many people are unwilling to pay enough for certain products and services they want. This is a fact that became painfully clear to some bdotcomQ startups in the nineties: While the free services they offered were used by millions, they found it impossible to implement fees for their services when venture capital dried up. Second, the very basic needs of millions of people in non-industrialized countries remain unmet, mainly because these potential customers are willing but unable to pay for products and services that would satisfy their needs. However, that is not the only reason why those unsatisfied needs have failed to attract the business com- 0007-6813/$ - see front matter D 2004 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2004.11.006 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: cseelos@sscg.org (C. Seelos)8 jmair@iese.edu (J. Mair). KEYWORDS Social entrepreneurship; Sustainability; Business model; Corporate social responsibility Business Horizons (2005) 48, 241—246 www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor