Relevance of Systems Thinking and Scientific Holism to Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Social enterprises are said to meet two conditions—they address long-standing social problems, and they develop innovative solutions to do so. However, many social enterprises satisfy these two conditions but are unsuccessful in creating sustained positive social change. This article argues that a necessary condition for social enterprises to create and sustain social change is the ability to cognise the ecology of the social problem—the relationship and interaction between a social problem and its context. This article scrutinises how social enterprises conceptualise and address social problems by applying the principles of scientific holism and systems thinking to social entrepreneurial theory and practice. It presents social problem archetypes and develops key lessons for devising effective strategies for addressing social problems.