Perspectivas del emprendimiento social: Importancia de la figura del emprendedor social, el crowdfunding y el modelo de franquicia ante el nuevo cambio de paradigma.

ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to investigate key aspects and problems currently facing social entrepreneurship. These aspects relate to social entrepreneurs and their characteristics, financing and sustainability issues, and the scaling of social projects. The aim is to provide new evidence through three studies that shed light on the performance of social entrepreneurs. Largely as a result of economic and social crises, social entrepreneurs have begun to play an increasingly prominent role in the economy in recent decades, given the benefits they can provide for society. For example, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has again highlighted the importance of social entrepreneurs in a report from September 2020 entitled ‘COVID-19 Action Agenda. Leaders on the Front Line: Why Social Entrepreneurs Are Needed Now More than Ever’. Unsurprisingly, researchers, nations and international organisations responsible for establishing legal and economic policies (e.g., the European Union) are allocating resources and programmes to the study and promotion of social entrepreneurship to strengthen its presence within the productive system of the area in question. In an increasingly global and dynamic context, social entrepreneurs must position themselves in the market, whilst striving for sustainability and financial profitability. Innovation, which is commonly associated with – and is in fact almost inseparable from – entrepreneurship, is paramount. Therefore, innovation must occur at all levels. This ranges from organisational processes concerned with knowledge and the exploitation of a company’s internal social capital (employee commitment), such as new ways of securing financial resources (crowdfunding), to ensuring that projects can be not only implemented but also maintained and made sustainable. It also refers to the introduction of new business models that allow for scaling (social franchises) to achieve greater social impact. In a broad sense, innovation combines a company’s internal knowledge with ideas and opportunities from the outside. Therefore, an active network of ecosystem agents (e.g., other social entrepreneurs and social enterprises, crowdfunding users, investors, suppliers, research centres, universities and the government) is necessary to interact and share information and ideas to achieve an outcome that has been reached by consensus. The synergies arising between parties thus increase the chances of success. Therefore, this thesis addresses issues relating to employee engagement, crowdfunding, co-creation, feedback, CSR and social franchising. Most social entrepreneurs, at least initially, usually run small and medium-sized enterprises, which are characterised by more flexible internal structures and shorter decision processes. Therefore, they were studied together because, theoretically, they should have a greater predisposition to adapt and embrace these types of practices. The literature on these individual business-related questions is extensive. However, its focus on social entrepreneurship is limited because this issue has not been addressed using a comprehensive approach. This thesis addresses these issues through three independent but intrinsically related articles that investigate the subject in depth. The first is entitled ‘How Social Entrepreneurs can Influence their Employees’ Commitment’. This article includes a review of the literature on social entrepreneurship, focusing particularly on social entrepreneurs. It analyses how social entrepreneurs strengthen the commitment of employees by developing organisational skills such as communication, teamwork, delegation, active listening and attitude. All entrepreneurs, including social entrepreneurs, need motivated employees, and teamwork is considered the best way to deliver better results in highly competitive global business environments. The second study, entitled ‘Crowdfunding success: the role of co-creation, feedback and corporate social responsibility’, addresses financing using an innovative model, namely crowdfunding. The purpose of this study is to investigate the success factors present in crowdfunding campaigns. Success is analysed from two points of view: success in securing the financial resources necessary to launch a project and personal success in terms of the entrepreneur’s satisfaction with the experience of presenting a project under a crowdfunding model. Specifically, the article examines factors linked to the relationship between entrepreneurs and funders (co-creation and feedback) and factors linked to the campaign content (dimensions of corporate social responsibility). Finally, the third article, entitled ‘Franchise Fairs: A Relevant Signal In Franchise Choice In Social Activity’, analyses the role of social franchises, a topic that has barely been addressed in the literature. This article analyses the relationship between the choice of franchise and the brand, price and participation in franchise fairs. To conclude this thesis, the main conclusions and implications are highlighted. These conclusions and implications are expected to help social entrepreneurs make better strategic decisions, thus minimising possible risks, improving internal social capital, facilitating access to financing and optimising access to resources so that they can consolidate their businesses and turn them into sustainable and easily scalable projects. Future lines of research in this area are also suggested, mainly in relation to investment through mechanisms such as crowd-franchising.