Rural Development through Social Entrepreneurship
Rural Development through Social Entrepreneurship

Summary/Abstract: Many of rural community issues are of social nature and, therefore, solving them requires innovative social solutions. From this perspective, social entrepreneurship can help solve rural community issues, especially poverty and inequality. Social entrepreneurship in rural areas is an indication of pursuing social objectives through the design of innovative strategies to mobilise the ideas, capacities, resources and social institutions needed for a balanced social passage. Social entrepreneurs can help develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem and a sustainable business development model in rural areas based on tapping into their specific opportunities to meet the real needs of rural communities. The world has witnessed many successful social entrepreneurship experiences over the years. Many of these social businesses have been remarkably successful in empowering poor local communities. Awareness of these experiences can inspire policymakers in developing empowering policies that are appropriate for the poor, as well as entrepreneurs and investors in the development of social businesses in deprived areas. This article, which is a result of a review study, introduces the concept of social entrepreneurship in order to promote the development of rural communities and briefly describes the experience of the Grameen Bank, one of the most successful examples of social entrepreneurship in the world. Keywords: social entrepreneurship, rural development, innovative strategies, empowering policies, Grameen Bank

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