The significance of faith based enterprises in the dual roles of social good and economic development in Kenya
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Date
2015-03-20Author
Nalyanya, Charles N.
Ndemo, Bitange
Gathungu, James
Language
enMetadata
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This paper seeks to investigate the impact of Faith based enterprises in their dual role of building social good and economic development in Kenya. A review of the literature reveals the absence of a coherent conceptual framework onthe success or failure of these enterprises. From
the twenty-four published articles reviewed, forming the basis of the paper, it was evident that
the impact of faith based enterprises extends beyond what is conceptualized as social enterprise
across different faiths. Empirical studies identify application of entrepreneurial factors of
innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking as central to the performance and sustainability of
social enterprises, thus spurring the growth of social entrepreneurship. The crucial dilemma to
social entrepreneurship remains how to measure its performance due to the non-quantifiability
of some of its social value deliverables. The paper concludes by suggesting various variables
namely: entrepreneurial orientation factors, environment (internal and external) factors and
their relationships from the literature as a source for further research. This would enrich the
understanding of social entrepreneurship and its anecdotes of the performance of Faith based
organizations for social value deliveries, and economic development of communities. Some of
the practical policy implications include: development of a public private partnership to solve
some of cross cutting social problems through enterprises;and building of linkages with
innovation centers to enhance social enterprise activities. Implications for Faith based
entrepreneurship theory and management practice are discussed.
Citation
Nalyanya, Charles N., Ndemo, Bitange and Gathungu, James (2015). The significance of faith-based enterprises in the dual roles of social good and economic development in Kenya. DBA African management review, 5(2 ); 2015Publisher
University of Nairobi