Entrepreneurship and Sustainability: Business Solutions for Poverty Alleviation from Around the World

Paul W. Thurman

Apr 2016 · Routledge

About this ebook

In Entrepreneurship and Sustainability the editors and contributors challenge the notion that not-for-profit social entrepreneurship is the only sort that can lead to the alleviation of poverty. Entrepreneurship for profit is not just about the entrepreneur doing well. Entrepreneurs worldwide are leading successful for-profit ventures which contribute to poverty alleviation in their communities. With the challenge of global poverty before them, entrepreneurs continue to develop innovative, business-oriented ventures that deliver promising solutions to this complex and urgent agenda. This book explores how to bring commercial investors together with those who are best placed to reach the poorest customers. With case studies from around the World, the focus of the contributions is on the new breed of entrepreneurs who are blending a profit motive with a desire to make a difference in their communities and beyond borders. A number of the contributions here also recognize that whilst much research has been devoted to poverty alleviation in developing countries, this is only part of the story. Studies in this volume also focus upon enterprise solutions to poverty in pockets of significant deprivation in high-income countries, such as the Appalachia region of the US, in parts of Europe, and the richer Asian countries. Much has been written about the achievements of socially orientated non-profit microfinance institutions. This valuable, academically rigorous but accessible book will help academics, policy makers, and business people consider what the next generation of more commercially orientated banks for the 'bottom billion' might look like.

About the author

Daphne Halkias, PhD. is Senior Research Fellow at The Center for Youth and Family Enterprise, University of Bergamo; Research Affiliate at the Institute for Social Sciences, Cornell University; an Affiliate at Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital at Harvard Medical School: and Research Associate at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego. Halkias is CEO of Executive Coaching Consultants and Editor of the International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She is a Member of 'Business Fights Poverty' Paul W. Thurman, MBA, is Clinical Professor, School of International and Public Affairs and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York. His international teaching, consulting, coaching and management experience spans strategic visioning, operations and change management, and technology strategy and implementation. Thurman sits on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation and is a member of ’Business Fights Poverty’.