Ignatian Pedagogy for Social Entrepreneurship: Twelve Years Helping 500 Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs Validates the GSBI Methodology

Abstract

In frontier economies, social entrepreneurship has emerged as a successful strategy to pursue sustainable development goals. By creatively blending business strategy, technology innovation and a deep understanding of customer need, social enterprises provide a pathway out of poverty, an alternative to private charity and government aid. Social entrepreneurs are developing strategies to make available distributed energy products, clean cooking and clean water technologies, and sustainable livelihoods. Social entrepreneurship is a pro-poor economic development strategy that promotes the common good. Many social entrepreneurs describe their work with terms like “calling” or “moral purpose” or “vocation,” harkening the emphasis in the Ignatian spiritual exercises on “making an election.”