The Role of Social Business on Social Transformation: Evidences from Bangladesh

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between social business contributions and social transformation in the associated community. Measuring social impact is one of the most desirable aspects of social business and related areas. Not only academic researchers, including social business beneficiaries, practitioners, policymakers, and governments are also keen to know about the impact of social business initiatives on social progress. As a result, this study focuses on the socio-economic impact of social business performance and its aftermath on society. Therefore, this study measured the changes in the lives of the social business community people, which transpired due to the engagement with social business initiatives. The research mainly employed a qualitative research methodology within an interpretive paradigm, including case studies, depth interviews, and a qualitative survey. In this connection, this research purposefully identified some social business case companies which were used to measure the success in changing the quality of life of the social business community people. A multiple case study method was preferred to thoroughly investigate the perceptions of social business stakeholders (social business beneficiaries, social business executives, social business community leaders) regarding social business‘s impact on society. A significant socio-economic shift (referred to as social transformation) has been observed in the lives of social business community people from the empirical study. For this study, the researcher explored extensive theoretical evidence from relevant literature and attributed 39 items including 14 variables that have direct and indirect influences to measure the social transformation effect resulting from social business companies and their performances. Using these variables and items, the research also administered a qualitative survey to investigate the direct and indirect influence of social business on social transformation. The direct impacts of social business towards social transformation comprise (i) capacity to address a social problem, (ii) strengthening local capacity, (iii) mobilizing existing assets, (iv) continuous learning, and (v) being able to adapt over the long-term period and the indirect evidence of social transformation include (vi) economic effects, (vii) social and cultural effects, (viii) demographic effects, (ix) political effects, and (x) ideological effects. A close- ended survey questionnaire was used with 'yes,' 'no,' and 'don't know' options. Out of 350 filled questionnaires, 300 defect-free questionnaires were chosen for analysis. In addition, for each social business case company, five higher and mid-level executives and two community leaders were interviewed to understand their perceptions about social transformation in the related social business community. In addition, 20 case studies were administered based on the progress of the quality of life of social business beneficiaries. Apart from that, some informal conversations with beneficiaries of social business companies were also noted for the purpose of subjective judgment of the problem at hand. The findings of the study revealed that all social business case companies have a significant impact in addressing specific social problems of the related social business community, and all have been able to change the quality of life of their beneficiaries substantially. Further, the findings confirmed that this substantial impact of social business eventually helps people to move forward towards the overall socio-economic transformation of the community. The important theoretical contribution of this research is the development of a parsimonious social transformation model based on social business case studies (success stories of the respondents). First of all, this research has effectively generated an integrated social business model combining different social business literature that will help people understand how social business companies work and how it is formed. Second, this research contributes to the existing knowledge of how people in developing countries like Bangladesh solve their specific social problems using their entrepreneurial capacity. Third, from the social business success stories, it has been evidenced that people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP) are not willing to remain a burden on society; a proper direction with minor financial assistance encourages them to turn around success and socio-economic change. Finally, it has been revealed from the case studies that the success stories of rural beneficiaries inspire peer groups to get involved in the same way, and it transforms their lives also with a mutual effort in due course.