Cultural Evolution and the Awareness of Social Entrepreneurial Opportunities: A Memetic Approach

Publication Type

Contribution to conference

Authors

Michael P. Schlaile, Marcus Ehrenberger

Year of publication

2015

Published in

Proceedings of the EURAM 2015 (European Academy of Management) Conference

ISBN / ISSN / eISSN

978-8386437-60-0

Conference name

European Academy of Management Annual Conference 2015

Conference location

Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland

Conference date

17-20 June, 2015

The central contribution of the paper consists in exploring the implications of a memetic perspective on social entrepreneurship. The line of argument can basically be divided into four aspects. First, it is argued that memes – especially their mental representations – can be conceptualized in the context of (cultural) schemata that have an impact on the perception, awareness, and recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities. Second, a memetic view of creativity also suggests that opportunity recognition strongly depends on memes. Third, viewing social entrepreneurship as a meme(plex) allows not only to compare it with related concepts but also to get to the core of the social entrepreneurial process by focusing on social entrepreneurial opportunities. A social entrepreneurial opportunity can then be understood as the cut set between the solution to a societal problem and a profitable business model. Fourth, in order to facilitate the propagation of the social entrepreneurship meme within (for-profit) organizations, a systematic analysis of the firm’s social network as well as its memeplex is proposed.