Support for social entrepreneurs from disadvantaged areas navigating crisis: Insights from Brazil

• Published in: Journal of Business Venturing Insights 2020-11, Vol.14, p.e00205, Article e00205
• Main Authors: Barki, Edgard, de Campos, José Guilherme F., Lenz, Anna-Katharina, Kimmitt, Jonathan, Stephan, Ute, Naigeborin, Vivianne
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brazil; Disadvantaged areas; Poverty; Social entrepreneurship; Socioeconomic crisis
• ISSN: 2352-6734; 2352-6734
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00205

When a socioeconomic crisis arises in an emerging economy, it highlights structural social issues facing the country and disproportionally impacts those from disadvantaged areas. Social entrepreneurship may be important as part of the solution to overcome this situation. However, it is often privileged individuals who engage in social entrepreneurship to tackle the problems of those who are disadvantaged. To enable social entrepreneurship in disadvantaged areas, we argue that it is instrumental to overcome a lack of at least three capitals: economic, human, and social and to craft enabling ecosystems. This rapid response paper explores how intermediary organizations might support and foster social entrepreneurs from disadvantaged areas. We discuss challenges and opportunities drawing on insights from micro and macro level perspectives in the entrepreneurship literature and from the challenges faced by ANIP, an organization which brings together actors from different sectors to develop social entrepreneurship in disadvantaged areas of São Paulo, Brazil. •Often social entrepreneurs (SEs) come from privileged backgrounds to work on challenges of disadvantage.•Encouraging social entrepreneurs directly from and in disadvantaged areas is important also.•We outline an ecosystem approach to foster SEs directly in disadvantaged areas.•This systems approach address both the micro and the macro level.•We use the example of a Brazilian intermediary organization – ANIP.