Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight

Social entrepreneurship, as a practice and a field for scholarly investigation, provides a unique opportunity to challenge, question, and rethink concepts and assumptions from different fields of management and business research. This article puts forward a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that catalyzes social change and addresses important social needs in a way that is not dominated by direct financial benefits for the entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship is seen as differing from other forms of entrepreneurship in the relatively higher priority given to promoting social value and development versus capturing economic value. To stimulate future research the authors introduce the concept of embeddedness as a nexus between theoretical perspectives for the study of social entrepreneurship

The Gift of Sight: A Case Review of Aravind Eye Care System

In 1976, Dr. G. Venkataswamy, a retired Professor of Ophthalmology at the Government Medical College in Madurai, India, founded the Aravind Eye Care System, which today has grown into the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world.

The 11 bed hospital has now grown beyond being just a chain of hospitals, and has evolved as a centre for manufacturing synthetic lenses, sutures, and also to train optometrists and other allied health care professionals.

As an institution that believes in being part of the country’s health care solution, Aravind Eye Care Systems has fine-tuned a low-cost model which has allowed it lower costs for the poor, as well as offer free eye care.

Over the years the hospital has gained global recognition. It is now a World Health Organization collaborating centre for prevention of blindness, and the only examination centre of the Royal College of Ophthalmology.