Social entrepreneurship interventions in the HIV/AIDS sector: A social entrepreneurship–social work perspective

Abstract

Despite the growing interest in social entrepreneurship research in the social work literature, very little research examines how social entrepreneurs tackle social work challenges in the HIV/AIDS sector. Consequently, we lack research on how social entrepreneurship might contribute to social work’s domain of healthcare. In this article, we employ grounded theory research to study how a group of social entrepreneurs (N = 58) selected as Fellows by Ashoka, one of the world’s most influential social entrepreneurship support organizations, solve HIV/AIDS problems. This article identifies four major interventions that social entrepreneurs employed in tackling HIV/AIDS problems: relational, service, economic, and policy. We analyzed these four primary interventions and classified them into a typology based on (1) locus of change (institutional-oriented or macro social work vs agent-oriented or micro social work), (2) resources used (material/utilitarian vs symbolic/normative), and (3) client–social enterprise relations (client as recipient vs client as co-creator). This article contributes to social work research by demonstrating the possibility of integrating multilevel (e.g. micro and macro) and multidimensional (e.g. service, economic, and policy) interventions in addressing HIV/AIDS problems. It also suggests avenues for future research to lessen the gap between social work and social entrepreneurship research so as to advance social work research.