ukthaun, p. msc dissertation 2016

“Does applying creative strategy have an impact on

social innovation? A case study about social enterprises

in Cambodia.”

Pagna Ukthaun

Supervisor: Dr. Yaz Djebbour

Student Number: 15002370

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Master of

Science in Business Innovation and Creative Entrepreneurship

London Metropolitan University, Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law

September 2016

Acknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Yaz Djebbour and my course

leader Barry Dwyer for their invaluable support, advice and comment throughout this

research.

Further thanks to my fellow classmates, especially to Anabel Mederos-Corratge, Benedikt

Hatzfeldt, Laura Montonen and Lauren Sullivan, for their valuable support and co-orporation

during my academic year at London Metropolitan University that enriched my experiences

intellectually and personally. All organisations and participants that participated in this study

are extremely appreciated for their time and enthusiastic energy to help complete this study

successfully and smoothly.

I am also extremely grateful for the opportunity to come and peruse my master degree here

with the support from British government under the Chevening Scholarship program, class

2015 – 2016. My best regards to my program officer Gabriela Gavrila who has made my

study experience and stay in London as easy as possible.

Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my friends and family who have

helped me academically, professionally and personally throughout this past year. My special

thanks to Raymond Hyma, Janita Bartell, Christian Russo and Tivea Koam for their

generous support to improve my academic quality tremendously.

Abstract

In recent years social innovation becomes as new solutions of sustainable change and

development (Nicholls, 2006). Social enterprises lead as innovator to transform unjust social

challenges and address solutions to people needs (Martin and Osberg, 2015; Murray et al.

2010; Sastre-Castillo et al. 2015). Emerging country like Cambodia has a number of non-

governmental organisations (NGOs) transform their social missions to social enterprises

(SEC, 2016) to look for sustainable financial independent to succeed their social goals

(Nicholls, 2006; Zastawny, 2014). However like any business in any market economies,

social enterprises in Cambodia face challenges to commercialise their new innovative

products or services into marketplace (Simester, 2016). Such challenges in business in

today technological advancement, researchers suggest that company needs creative

strategy such as design thinking process in order to success and stay innovative (Kirsch et

al. 2016). Creative strategy therefore gives viable solutions to keep business generating

innovative ideas and succeeding through competitions (Hansen and Birkinshaw, 2007). But

creative strategy is still relatively new topics in Cambodia and literatures review yet show

that there are not enough evidence of understanding and applying creative strategy in social

innovation in the local context. This paper thereafter conducted a case study with social

enterprises in Cambodia based on qualitative research to seek for answers of the impact on

social innovation if enterprises have used creative strategy. The data analysis and finding

from the study will then presented in the commercial output where this study want to

contribute as the gap in academic literatures and as benefits for local social enterprises

reference.

September 2016

Ukthaun, Pagna “Does applying creative strategy have an impact on social innovation? A case study of social enterprises in Cambodia.”

London Metropolitan University, Guildhall Faculty of Business and LawMSc in Business Innovation and Creative Entrepreneurship

Keywords: Creative strategy, social innovation, social entrepreneurship

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................2

Abstract....................................................................................................................................3

Chapter 1 Introduction.........................................................................................................5

1.1 Social business innovation in Cambodia........................................................................5

1.2 Research aims................................................................................................................6

1.3 Research outlines...........................................................................................................6

Chapter 2 Literature Review................................................................................................7

2.1 Understanding social innovation and entrepreneurship.................................................7

2.2 Creativity in social enterprise..........................................................................................9

2.3 Impact of creativity on social innovation.......................................................................11

2.4 Research questions......................................................................................................13

Chapter 3 Research Design.............................................................................................15

3.1 Methodology.................................................................................................................15

3.2 Research liability, validity and ethic..............................................................................16

3.3 Samples........................................................................................................................17

3.4 Data analysis................................................................................................................18

3.5 Finding..........................................................................................................................19

Chapter 4 Commercialisation Process..............................................................................24

4.1 Social entrepreneurial society......................................................................................24

Motive paradigm.............................................................................................................25

Social paradigm..............................................................................................................26

Means paradigm.............................................................................................................27

Market paradigm.............................................................................................................27

4.2 Sustainable future for social innovation........................................................................29

Chapter 5 Conclusions.....................................................................................................31

Limitation and recommendation.........................................................................................32

References.............................................................................................................................33

Appendix 1 Interview guide and questionnaires..............................................................36

Appendix 2 Interview Transcriptions................................................................................37

2.1 Interviewee A, Impact Hub Phnom Penh..................................................................37

2.2 Interviewee B, WaterSHED Venture (non-recorded)................................................38

2.3 Interviewee C, Sevea Consulting..............................................................................38

2.4 Interviewee D, NRG Solutions..................................................................................39

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Social business innovation in CambodiaCambodia is an emerging market economy whose innovative status has only recently begun

to take off. After decades of civil war, conflict and poverty, the country’s economy has grown

rapidly with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at an average annual rate of 7 percent – putting

it in the ranks of one of the fastest growing economies in Asia (ADB, 2016). Cambodia is an

active partner with regional stakeholders and has been a member of Association of South

East Asian Nations (ASEAN) since April 1999. As a member state of ASEAN, Cambodia is

engaging in development of its international trade, business innovation, promoting regional

peace and stability, and increasing its high quality human capital (ASEAN, 2016). As the

country’s economy develops, there are a number of innovative projects from global donors

and investors to foster improvement in equality and societal needs. Private businesses

become more active in creating business that respond to societal challenges, an area where

the Cambodian government still lacks resources. In addition, a number of Non-

Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are working in clean water, health care, education and

improving access to sanitation and energy for rural communities.

Business innovation in Cambodia is more likely to be involved with NGOs when the nature of

business is related to social empowerment and improvement. These types of innovation

have taken off recently after NGOs became involved in social enterprise, either for profit or

non-profit ventures. NGOs come with financial resources and management expertise where

government and local enterprise may be lacking during the initial phases of the innovative

process, such as designing and prototyping new products. NGOs involvement is a key

advantage toward successful innovation, and their role in innovation can create more impact

to tackle poverty and increase living standards for developing countries like Cambodia

(Dalziel, 2007; The Economist, 2011).

Approximately 62 social enterprises registered their business in Cambodia ranking from

agriculture to tourism to vocational training to clean energy to micro finance, according to

Social Enterprise Cambodia (SEC), 2016. Businesses are flooding into the country mainly

through foreign investors who have the capitals and skills to develop and exploit the market

opportunity. For example, NRG Solutions (NRG) is a social enterprise for-profit based in

Phnom Penh, established in 2013. It was first started under a partnership with an

established NGO where NRG leveraged the existing resources such as office facilities and

human resources to do the market and product testing. According to the International

Finance Corporation (IFC) claimed that Cambodia has the most active social enterprises in

the region (SEC, 2016). IFC’s claim is clear with the increasing number of enterprises

establishing in the country. Although Cambodia is the second poorest countries in the

region, its promise of high GDP growth rates has been attracting foreign investors and

donors to undertake more business in the country. Social entrepreneurs take this advantage

to get funding for their projects and make a great impact to society through sustainable and

responsible businesses (SEC, 2016).

1.2 Research aimsThe central purpose of this research paper is to understand to the impact of applying

creative strategy on social innovation in the local context of emerging economy in Cambodia.

This research is based on a case study of four social enterprises to analyse the early stage

of start-up development to find the correlation between creative strategy and social

innovation. The methodology and research design have been put in place to gather

information that will help this research to come up with an answer as accurately as possible

to the central topic question. The results aim is to contribute its finding to the gap of

academic literatures in the Cambodian social business context, and as well as for the

benefits of future social development.

1.3 Research outlinesThe investigation of this study begins with a review of existing literature in Chapter 2 and

outlines the principle behind social innovation, social enterprise, social entrepreneur,

creative strategy and impact of applying creative strategy on social innovation. Chapter 3

describes the research design and specific methodology adapted for this study by presenting

original and previously unexplored information through in depth analysis. Then, Chapter 4

discusses the commercialisation process from the finding to explore the possibility of how

social innovation can be sustainable development and operate its business by using creative

strategy. Chapter 4 will conclude the summary of main points from this study by providing a

sound recommendation, limitations of this study and future reference for further research

purposes.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Understanding social innovation and entrepreneurship The term social innovation describes initiatives that aim to transform social change. Different

definitions argue from different authors according to different contexts, nonetheless the

foundation of social innovation describes as new approaches to address social needs by

engaging and mobilising the beneficiaries to focus group of people to transform society

toward sustainability (Martin and Osberg, 2015; The Young Foundation, 2016; NESTA,

2008). Furthermore, social innovation, in social economy context, can be viewed as a

distribution system to sustain and manage relationships in marketplaces and state

economies where some old elements and many new elements merge toward a new

economic development (Murray et al, 2010; NESTA, 2008). For example, Howard (2015)

describes, in the Guardian, six innovations that are helping society gain benefits more

effectively such as the renewable energy sector. One of Howard’s six innovation reports

focused on solar balloons for refugees’ camps as a recent example of how innovation

responds to societal crisis.

Social innovation has been proven as an effective solution for creating value in societal

systems that make market economies and livelihoods better for all social groups. Ionescu

(2015) stresses that social innovation can only succeed when there is cooperation between

government, communities and people that are concerned about the sustainable future and

try to find viable solutions to overcome poverty and humanity issues. Ionescu (2015)’s view

does not differ from Leydesdorff (2006)’s Triple-Helix model and Dalziel (2007) theory that

innovation and social innovation are more effective with collaboration of five main

stakeholders, government, industry, universities, NGOs and citizens who share the same

endeavour.

Social entrepreneurs are often miss-understood and thought of as charitable people, when in

fact they are not charitable people. They are not people who engage in charity work but

instead the creation of long-term sustainable social value. They have vision and desire to

improve the social well-being in a variety of areas that can generate their business revenues

while at the same time resolve societal issues (Sastre-Castillo et al. 2015). Martin and

Osberg (2015) describe social entrepreneurs as a society transformers who target the unjust

and unsustainable systems and thus change those systems and challenge the status quo.

Social entrepreneurs translate their winning aspirations and compelling visions in their

chosen endeavour into action steps and direction. They are constantly looking and imagining

what can be done to create social benefit and shape a new future focused on the well-being

of all and improving the lives of the disadvantaged in the current society’s system (Martin

and Osberg, 2015). A social entrepreneur is different from a classical entrepreneur even

though both of them are still doing business, creating jobs and improving economies. A

classical entrepreneur comes to business due to market opportunity while a social

entrepreneur comes to business due to the passion and desire to resolve social problems

(Sastre-Castillo et al. 2015).

The concept of social enterprise is not far different from social entrepreneurship. Social

enterprise is about creating and bringing transformative societal change (Martin and Osberg,

2015). Social enterprise works on two main structures by adhering to social goals and

managing financial capital. Adhering to social goals aims to benefit a specific group of

people that can permanently improve and transform their lives, family’s economic and as

well as socioeconomic status. Most disadvantages in society, especially in developing

countries, will need social enterprises that form businesses around social needs, and bridge

the gap between social class and opportunity. Countries like Cambodia benefit from social

enterprise in a variety of ways, such as by receiving improved access to sanitation. One of

the example is WaterSHED Venture, a social enterprise in Cambodia working to bring low

cost latrine and latrine shelters to low-income families in rural areas where their economic

plight can only offer them limited access to clean sanitation. However, Martin and Osberg

(2015), stress that the endeavour of social enterprise must be financially sustainable.

Financial independence allows enterprise to not rely on government subsidies or charity

grants. The enterprise should be able to benefit and create value thus supporting the

company’s profitably while creating value and solving social challenges at the same time.

Source: Photos supplied – from left to right: NRG Solutions teams installing solar panels for customer and Impact Hub Phnom Penh co-working space.

2.2 Creativity in social enterprise

In order to develop social enterprise successfully, social entrepreneurs will need to

understand clearly how to strategically manage their specific social venture. There are many

examples of how social business has created new innovative products and services that

could have transformed and changed people’s lives. However, the majority of products and

services fail when introduced to the marketplace due to the enterprise’s inability to

communicate value to the consumer (Simester, 2016). Products’ and services’ value may be

viewed differently from one consumer to another, but if local entrepreneurs can use their

discovery skills to deliver product value to meet customer needs, consumer demand and

help simplify consumers’ challenges, they will have a higher chance of leading their

enterprise to success (Thompson and MacMilllan, 2010).

A successful organisation, regardless of its industrial sector, is typically headed by

innovative leaders who share five common discovery skills accordingly to Dyer et al. (2009)

research on the topic of innovator’s DNA (figure 1). Their research shows that successful

innovators are able to embrace their discovery skills by repeatedly practicing and rehearsing

until these behaviours become natural. For example, Jeff Bezos – Amazon’s CEO, practices

his observation skill by taking pictures of bad examples of innovation and looking at how he

would do it better. Hansen and Birkinshaw (2007) argue that better innovation needs

entrepreneurs to look at the process of transforming ideas into commercial output through

the support of internal and external stakeholders. Organisations that are better than their

rivals are constantly looking at changes by examining how ideas can be generated,

converted and diffused through the innovation value chain. It is the process that will allow

companies to analyse how to generate high-quality ideas internally and externally in an

integrated flow (Hansen and Birkinshaw, 2007).

Figure 1: The Five Discovery Skills of Innovator’s DNAThe five discovery skills of innovator’s DNA

Associating Describes creative entrepreneurs and leaders who have the ability to connect

the dots and combine pieces of information until new innovative idea form into

high satisfactory level.

Observing Describes innovators and change-makers who pay attention to every details of

problems in order to transform current status to give better solution or set of new

solutions.

Experimenting Describes leaders that took initial idea to go above and beyond the initial plan to

constantly looking to improve the process for better and better innovation.

Questioning Describes leaders that constantly ask questions that help them to generate and

find new information to look for unexpected ideas or solutions.

Networking Describes leaders who are looking to connect with people that have different

background to challenge their ideas and to help them see things from the

different angles.

Source: Dyer, J.H., Gregersen, H.B. and Christensen, C.M. (2009) ‘The Innovator’s DNA’ Harvard Business Review.

Although companies may have solid strategic plans, they often face creativity challenges in

the design thinking process and during creativity generation. Amabile (1998) describes the

common error in organisations that kills creativity in six areas of (i) challenge, (ii) freedom,

(iii) resources, (iv) work-group feature, (v) supervisory encouragement, and (vi)

organisational support (figure 2). Amabile’s research shows that companies that struggle to

foster their creativity inside the organisation often end up killing the best ideas by losing

control of those six areas key to fostering creativity in workplace. Although Amabile’s theory

seems to fit well with big companies that have sufficient resources, it may be difficult to put

into practice for start-ups and small enterprises, like in Cambodia, where limitations in

resources, time and financing are all very limited.

Figure 2: Six cultures for fostering creativity Six cultures for fostering creativity in organisation

Challenge Well balance workload and give people with the right assignment to perform

the job at their best interest and ability.

Freedom Let people to decide how to climb a mountain, to do perform their task, to

challenge their workgroup but organisation do gives the right direction and

track for them to achieve.

Resources Determine legitimate time, funding, manpower and other resources that a

team would need in order to perform and succeed in their projects.

Work group

features

Mutually support team work culture who have diverse perspective and

background.

Supervisory

encouragement

Praise for creative efforts of employees even their effort not yet show any

commercial benefits. Acknowledgement the work effort can motivate people to

continue performing and achieving.

Organisational

support

Emphasise values and set appropriate system to recognise creative work as

top priority in the organisation.

Source: Amabile, T (1998) ‘How to Kill Creativity’ Harvard Business Review.

Caniëls and Rietzschel (2015) studies show that creativity, however, can also arise under

constrained circumstances. They argue that of course full resources, such as funding and

timing are necessary for employees to be able to pursue new ideas and be innovative. But

those resources usually limit people from being creative and generating ideas based on their

own paths. Constraints in the workplace yield opposite results. Most innovative ideas often

arise when there is limited amount of time and resources, coupled with the pressure that a

solution or idea must generated in order to resolve a pressing issue. Most time constraints in

the workplace can be resolved with support from leaders who understand what the key

factors are in order to promote innovation (Caniëls and Rietzschel, 2015). Amabile and

Khaire (2008) explain how leaders can bring creativity into workplace by creating a safe

working environment where employees are encouraged to speak up about their ideas, ask

questions and make mistakes without humiliation or retribution. Leaders who can support

and create this safe working environment are more likely to achieve innovative results

despite having limited resources (Caniëls and Rietzschel, 2015; Amabile and Khaire, 2008).

2.3 Impact of creativity on social innovation One of the many innovation challenges is to get consumers to adopt new products or

services. Successful innovation requires companies to be able to deliver a clear message to

the consumer about their product, service, or values, and a common failure of new

innovation is its inability to communicate value features to the end consumer (Simester,

2016). Trott (2012) explains success in innovation only happens when there is a commercial

success in the marketplace. The completion of innovation only when its product or service

can create value to the company and consumer. Tidd and Bessant (2013) conceptualise the

successful way to manage new innovation through four dimensions of innovation space:

paradigm innovation, position innovation, product innovation and process innovation (see

figure 3).

Figure 3: Example of WaterSHED Venture innovation paradigms

Source: Adapted from Tidd and Bessant (2013) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change.

In addition, commercialising innovation in emerging markets can be a completely different

operation from developed markets. Adaptation to local requirements is a necessity for a

strategic plan to win business in emerging markets. Govindarajan and Warren (2016)

describe Amazon local adaptation when the company tried to win their e-commerce market

potentials in India. In cash market transactions, among a population with limited internet

access and a government policy environment that protects local convenience stores,

Amazon centralises its operations with local stores where customers can come to use store

provided internet to order products from Amazon and pay in cash at local stores that act as

Amazon agents. This local adaptation has allowed Amazon to grow their business in India,

protect local businesses and act as an innovative corporation while increasing India’s social-

economic conditions (Govindarajan and Warren, 2016). Winter and Govindarajan (2015)

argue that realising disruptive leaps in marketplaces, like Amazon did in India, will allow

organisations to engineer reverse innovation where a product platform can add or remove

features to fit with market needs (either in emerging or developing worlds) and still deliver a

high performance. This Amazon example proves that creative strategy does have a

significant impact on social innovation if the company can successfully adapt it to suit the

local business environment.

Katre and Salipante (2012) study about social innovation from two different start-ups, social

business for profit and non-profit. Their research show that regardless of the financial capital

from two types of business models, the bottom line for an organisation to be successful is to

understand their skills capability and network to industry experts in their chosen sector.

Finding a novel strategy suitable in emerging markets, where social enterprise often begin, is

different from where companies operate in developed markets (Khanna et al. 2005). Khanna

et al. describe that mapping the right strategy for managing business in emerging markets

require leaders and entrepreneurs to pay attention issues such as accessing a labour market

to analyse if there is enough skilled employees or industry experts that can help them enter

the market and commercialise a product or service successfully. Political and social systems

in emerging markets are often a barer to new innovation implementation and adaptation for

consumers, which require company to have a clear understanding of target consumer needs

and know how to resolve challenges through social system’s obstacles (Khanna et al. 2005;

Katre and Salipante, 2012; Winter and Govindarajan, 2015).

Moreover, start-ups can accelerate their growth revenues when entering the commercial

process by selecting consumer focus groups or segments, and then identifying challenges

and pain points that consumers have to resolve it for them (Ashkenas and Finn, 2016). Hull

(2016) argues that to scale start-up operations this require leadership change in the

company from a start-up phrase to a scale up phrase. According to Hull (2016), scaling the

business needs a balanced approach of push and pull leadership style to engage and

motivate employees to align with business goals. Keeping inspiration of the founding

principles of the company inside and empowering frontline employees will help to keep the

novelty of company youthfulness to grow in the same mentality when it was born and not

fade away the passion of its creation (Zook, 2016). To keep the business passion alive

requires entrepreneurs to be flexible with their business plan and constantly asks for

feedback on their business performance (Collewaert and Anseel, 2016).

2.4 Research questionsAfter reviewing the literature above, it appears that there is a gap of understanding that how

can creative strategy can be utilised to enhance social innovation and improve social

enterprise business performance in local context. Interestingly in Cambodia, there is still no

clear evidence why should the country economics focus on social enterprise for its future

development. Therefore, this study is looking to answer from the following questions:

i. How is creative strategy used for social innovation in Cambodia? This

question is to extend the academic research and debate where creative strategy

is mainly conducted in large corporations and develop markets to cross examine

it at local level.

ii. Does the impact of creativity on social innovation in Cambodia depend on the business sector? This question aims to explore and investigate the strategic

reasons behind the impact of creative strategy on social innovation in Cambodia.

It aims to explore if creativity effects social innovation at different scale by

different business sector or it does not matter.

iii. Does the condition of doing business matter in social innovation? This

question will allow the research to find evidence to what kind of conditions

creativity can make an impact on social innovation. It will look to understand if

business size, operation location or product and service scale different influent to

the business.

Chapter 3 Research Design

3.1 Methodology Cambodia is a complex context to study where little data is available for public study and

almost no previous research has been conducted in this subject area. Taking into

consideration also that social innovation and creative strategy are relatively new topics in

Cambodia, this research paper has decided to conduct its study in a case study method with

selected social enterprises to explore the answer by using an interpretivist framework of

qualitative research. Qualitative research method helps to investigate and measure social

phenomena in social innovation and its complexity through subjective views in different

contexts that social entrepreneurs encounter (Collis and Hussey, 2014). Moreover, case

study research will allow this study to have an in depth knowledge and findings from the real

world working contexts of social innovation and creativity in Cambodia. Yin (2009) explains

that case study methodology helps the research to build and connect critical analysis from

the literature reviews to the case study phenomena (Collis and Hussey, 2014).

This study employs one-on-one interviews with representatives from four social enterprises

founded in Cambodia. For this research four interviewees (one from each enterprise) were

conducted in English on various dates in August, 2016. The focus of the interviews was on

the topics of social innovation, strategic creativity and commercialisation management. The

interviews lasted between 40 and 50 minutes and were conducted via video call due to the

geographical differences between the researcher and interviewees. The interviews were

designed as semi-structured interviews which allows the interviewees to explain the topics,

such as creativity, business innovation and challenges base on their interest and experience

(Collis and Hussey, 2014). The semi-structured interviews were conducted using a prepared

interview guide (see appendix 1) and allowed flexibility for the interviewer to follow up on

interesting statements made by the interviewees. All interviews were conduct via video call

and 3 of 4 interviews were done with voice record while the 1 of 4 was only done with notes

taken.

Thereafter, the study took all answers from interviewees to cross examine and identify the

theme through the interpretivism method which was based on More’s (1994) cognitive

processes of analysis qualitative inquiry – adapted from Walkter et al. (2008) – see figure 4.

According to Creswell (1994), the interpretivism study allows researcher to analyse the

subjectivity (or subjectivity) of social reality, for example, how social innovation works and

manages in Cambodia based on each social entrepreneur’s experiences (Collis and Hussey,

2014). Through this method, interviewees described the initials of forming enterprise and

their motive behind it, and then, explained how they enter their product/service into

marketplace through different approaches and real world tests.

Figure 4: Research design and methodology process

Source: Adapted from Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2014) Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students; and Walker et al. (2008) A Neophyte’s Journey through Qualitative Analysis Using Morse’s Cognitive Processes of Analysis.

3.2 Research liability, validity and ethic To ensure the consistency of this study, four social enterprises were employed to participate

in the case study, two of them are running as a for-profit organisation and two as non-profit

(refer to section 3.3, table 1). Each enterprise was represent by one respondent which

include the founder, director and manager of the organisation. All four respondents were

carefully selected to represent their idea and opinion about creativity and its impact on social

innovation in Cambodia and may not represent as the whole organisation point of views.

Before starting the interview, the interviewer asked for the permission of the interviewee to

conduct the interview as the formality of research process and was granted permission to

state the organisation’s name and their role. Moreover, the interviewer provided clear

explanation of key words in academic terms, such as creative strategy and social innovation,

and background of the study to ensure all participants understood clearly the topic and

questions. This process helps to generate answers as valid and as accurate as possible.

3.3 SamplesThe sample of this study consisted of four social enterprises and four respondents – one

from each enterprise – which are working in the social innovation sector in Cambodia (see

Table 1 below). This research selected enterprises based on their mission on social

development, engagement and commercial activity. The amount of qualitative data collection

is based on the high level selection of focus group to ensure the richness and depth of data

will reflect the chosen paradigm of the research (Collis and Hussey, 2014).

To start with, NRG is working in renewable energy to supply for rural Cambodian (NRG,

2016). It is currently working in the co-share working space alongside with Sevea Consulting

firm that consults in clean energy and environment, water and sanitation, and strategic

planning for rural development (Sevea, 2016). Sevea Consulting’s mission is to support and

advise current and future change-maker, like NRG. The company is currently working on

one of their program called “Act Program” to support social entrepreneurs and start-up

companies who are struggling to scale up their business. They support social entrepreneur

by providing high quality interns in related sector area to work in social entrepreneurial

society with a vision for sustainable development.

As a community of social entrepreneurial society, Sevea and NRG also engage with an

enterprise, Impact Hub Phnom Penh, which is an incubator hub to support entrepreneurs

and its alliances in business planning, sourcing capital and designing strategic commercial

plan. This accelerator hub is a central support for social innovation in Cambodia, which also

provides a platform for students and change-makers to come and work together towards

innovative projects for social development (Impact Hub, 2016). The last sample in this

research paper is, WaterSHED Venture. This enterprise is an umbrella enterprise from its

NGO, WaterSHED. The social enterprise is working on rural development in access to

sanitation and clean water (WaterSHED, 2016). It is one of the most innovative enterprises,

which is actively working to improve and scale up the livelihood of the community as well as

local enterprises.

Table 1: Social enterprises in sample study

Organisation Name

Product/Service What make it social Legal Structure

Venture Age (years)

Founder Nationality

NRG Solutions (Cambodia)

Affordable and sustainable solar panel

Focus on sustainable energy access for everyone at the affordable price

For profit 2.5 Foreign national

Sevea Consulting

Strategic management consulting, supporting and advising to change-maker and entrepreneur

Focus on supporting social entrepreneurs, organisations and government for sustainable and strategic economic development.

For profit 1 Foreign national

Impact Hub (Phnom Penh)

Social innovation training program, entrepreneur support and mentor

Focus on sustainable and innovative Cambodia and connecting ventures and entrepreneurs from different background to work together, support each other toward common social development goals

Non-profit 1 4 founders (3 foreigner nationals, 1 Cambodian)

WaterSHED Venture

Affordable latrine shelter and portable hand-washing

Focus on improving livelihood of rural community and unjust social group for sustainable and healthy living

Non-profit 1.5 Foreign national founder with a local director

Source: information obtains from organisation webpages

3.4 Data analysisThe process of analysing this qualitative study is based on Morse (1994) cognitive

processes of analysis. For analysing purpose in this paper, synthesising and theorising

elements from Morse (1994) have been used to identify different themes and concepts from

participants (Collis and Hussey, 2014). To make data analysis and reduction process sharp

and focus, the analysis process was structured into three level from data collection to identify

them to critical finding – see table 2 (Walkter et al. 2008).

Table 2: Data Analysis based on Morse’s Cognitive Processes of Analysis

Level Process Step Transcription Themes

1 Data collection Primary data through interviews and secondary data through

company high profile information and reliable publication

resources were employed to gather data for the study.

2 Identify theme Review transcript of interviewees' answers and group them

into analytical theme according to its description patterns. The

identification will help to explain the different scenario and

circumstances in social innovation and creativity in Cambodia.

3 Critical finding Through theme identifications, this research will present key

critical findings to analyse in real business practice. The study

will use these data findings to present in the

commercialisation process in social entrepreneurship and

innovation in Cambodia (Chapter 4).

Source: Adapted from Walker et al. (2008) A Neophyte’s Journey through Qualitative Analysis Using Morse’s Cognitive Processes of Analysis.

In the data collection processes, all primary research was conducted via video call interviews

which recorded, noted and analysed for key information and for forming to different themes.

Secondary data such as enterprise’s profile, corporate stakeholders, sponsors, and

company’s products and services – were noted to compare and form a sound description in

interview transcriptions (see appendix 2). Industrial sector profile and general published

information were also obtained from reputable and reliable sources to verify information that

was described by interviewees and their company’s profile. Data reduction was then

employed to reduce unwanted information to generate and identify themes in social

entrepreneurial innovation.

3.5 Finding Four themes were found from a number of patterns in the correlation between creative

strategy and social entrepreneurship – see table 3: theme and patterns of social

entrepreneurial society.

The first theme (section 1, table 3) that the study identified is the founder’s purpose in social

innovation and its organisational transformational process (from NGOs to social enterprises).

Social innovation and entrepreneurship founded by entrepreneurs who are passionate for

social changes. They actively look to bring their ideas as well as purposes into commercial

reality that benefit large target groups or society as a whole (Martin and Osberg, 2015;

Sastre-Castillo et al. 2015, The Young Foundation, 2016; and NESTA, 2018). Throughout

data collection, the study found a clear link from entrepreneurs to the literature evidences. It

helps this study to be able to find proof that social innovation is occurring through individuals

who are passionate and devote to close the gap of an unjust society. NRG’s founder and

director starts the business to change people lives that do not have access to energy.

Likewise, Sevea Consulting creates with the vision to support social entrepreneurs in making

their business sustainable. Impact Hub Phnom Penh was created with a vision that is

inspired by social entrepreneurs to help them succeed in their project. These social

entrepreneurs’ purposes are the foundation of why they start the business with the

motivation of transforming society.

Cambodia has the highest number of NGOs per capita in the region with support from

international donors and government agencies (SEC, 2016). Transforming NGOs to social

business seems like a solution for financial sustainability. However, interviewee A at Impact

Hub, warns that the success of social innovation need also established business to get

involve. She argues that big companies that already established and have the capital to

invest need to see social business as a future step to its business growth. This is another

angle that this study found the different purposes between classic and social entrepreneurs.

Social entrepreneurs all started their business with the motivation behind it to help society

and not purely base on financial greed (Martin and Osberg, 2015; Sastre-Castillo et al.

2015). Four of four enterprises were founded by founders who belief in the philosophy of

closing the gap of unjust society challenges.

Table 3: Theme and patterns of entrepreneurial society Section Theme Pattern scenario of social

entrepreneurshipNo. of enterprise

Interviewee’s answer

1 Founder’s purpose and transforming process

1. Inspire and passionate to resolve social challenges

2. Initial start as NGOs before turn into social business

3. Foreign ownership and/or founded

4 of 4

3 of 4*

4 of 4

“…work with social enterprises for

sustainable development through

supporting and advising entrepreneurs…”

Sevea Consulting

“….WaterSHED Venture is a social

enterprise to support our NGO mission on

increasing sanitation access, hygiene and

local enterprise development…”

WaterSHED Venture

“…we are one of the impact hub across

the globe to accelerate the growth of

social business…” Impact Hub

“…in 2013 we start our market testing and

research under an existing NGO….” NRG

“…most of enterprises are run and found

by foreigners…” Sevea Consulting

*Research noted: Sevea Consulting founders started as independent consultants then registered as business institution.

2 Strategic partnership

4. Collaboration with different stakeholders and organisations

5. Constantly seeking for new ideas and solutions

6. Innovative ideas impact on business growth

4 of 4

4 of 4

4 of 4

“…we help entrepreneurs to connect and

work with other in co-working space,

supporting and friendly environment…”

Impact Hub Phnom Penh

“…we read a lot, we talk with other

entrepreneurs and organisations on how

to improve our business…” NRG,

“…we collaborate with different

organisations to strengthen our business

process and design a better platform to

work with rural community…” WaterSHED

Venture

“…absolutely…we work constantly to

have a different programs to help

students, future entrepreneurs and

enterprises…” Impact Hub Phnom Penh

3 Resource constraints

7. Difficulty in hiring high quality employee

8. Capital and funding constraints

9. Entrepreneur trying to manage and resolve everything by themselves

3 of 4

4 of 4

3 of 4*

“…majority of people still not want to work

with start-up due to the uncertainty of

business future and low salary compare to

established business…” NRG

“…initial funding is challenges for

entrepreneur if business is not sponsoring

by international donors or NGOs…”

Impact Hub Phnom Penh

“…common issue of entrepreneurs is that

they are trying to fix literally everything

and did not give enough time to dedicate

on other matters…” Sevea Consulting

*Research noted: WaterSHED Venture understands the requirements to be success is to have a good team and enough people to perform the business.

4 Sustainable market challenges

10. Consumer adaptation to new products or services

11. Local involvement is need for sustainable grow in the future

12. Entrepreneurs are still focus on too much solutions offering and not enough on problems solving

4 of 4

4 of 4

3 of 4*

“…asking people to buy something new

that they is already difficult and it is

extremely difficult when they don’t see it

as their priority…” WaterSHED Venture

“…we’re working with local enterprise

alongside with our social business to help

them grow and one day take over our

mission to manage at their local level…”

WaterSHED Venture

“…if they want to be success social entrepreneurs, they must be able to identify people problems and how to resolve them…” Impact Hub Phnom Penh

*Research noted: WaterSHED Venture not mention on entrepreneurs but highlight that NGOs in Cambodia seem not to have exit planned and widely focus on offering help and solution to community without actually resolving problems.

Source: populated from interviews with social entrepreneurs.

In second theme (section 2, table 3), social entrepreneurs showed a strong collaboration

between other strategic stakeholders. They are actively seeking for support from other

organisations or entrepreneurs who share similar interests and goals. According to Dyer et

al. (2009) strategic networking and collaborating is one of the innovator skills, which helps a

lot of successful innovators and entrepreneurs shape their business beyond their own

abilities and potential circles. However, the study showed a contradictory pattern of

challenges that entrepreneurs are facing. One of the start-up challenges that entrepreneurs

described was innovation in constraint circumstances. Project Manager for Act Program at

Sevea Consulting, explained that a lot of time entrepreneurs did not have the capital to hire

highly skills employees to join their start-up and were struggling to do everything on their

own. Social entrepreneurs need to work with people that have different background from

them to challenge their idea, to support their thinking and to grow their future opportunity

(Dyer et al. 2009).

Looking at Amabile’s (1998) theory of fostering creativity in organisation, resources, can be

difficult to apply for a small start-up in developing market like Cambodia. However, under

resource constraints and limitations, some social entrepreneurs show a pattern of strong

collaboration with different organisations to constantly look for new ideas and solutions. For

example, Sevea Consulting program aims to support social entrepreneur providing high

quality human resources to work in start-up and tackle challenges by supporting and

advising entrepreneurs on the effective way to scale up their business. Hansen and

Birkinshaw (2007) describe this as the process of transforming ideas into commercial output

through support of internal and external stakeholders.

The third theme (section 3, table 3) found that social entrepreneurial face common

challenges in resource constraints pressure in variety circumstances. NRG’s founder and

director experienced that hiring highly qualified employees require higher pay which his

company is not able to pay them yet. However, Act Program at Sevea Consulting challenges

this type of constraints by innovating new solution to support entrepreneurs to achieve better

results under limited resources. As a solution, Sevea Consulting closed the constraints gap

by supporting social entrepreneurs with highly qualified international internship students who

are looking to expand their knowledge and gain hand-on experience through the program.

As literature evidence, Caniëls and Rietzschel (2015) explain, constraints do not mean the

end of innovation; however, exploration under such circumstances can give a new innovative

way of working.

Moreover, operating business under constraints resources is a key challenge for social

entrepreneurs. Not all of social business start with NGOs capital and limited in funding will

consequently limit to their potential growth. Common issues of entrepreneur is trying to

manage everything of their start-up and did not allow their time to work on scale up the

business, said interviewee C at Sevea Consulting. Poor organisation people management

reduce the creativity in organisation, lose the opportunity to scale up and lead to the passion

of the business fade away (Amabile and Khaire, 2008; Hull, 2016; Zook, 2016). If

entrepreneurs understand their limited resources and team motivation, creativity can be

highly generated (Caniëls and Rietzschel, 2015).

Lastly, the fourth finding (section 4, table 3) in this analysis is the challenges for

sustainability in the marketplace. One of social entrepreneur’s largest challenges is

consumer adaptation to new product or service. This is one of many innovation challenges,

which stops enterprises from succeeding in creating value for its commercialisation, both for

consumer and company (Simester, 2016; Trott, 2012; Tidd and Bessant, 2013). WaterSHED

Venture, for instance, is looking to exploit the market opportunity for its product latrine

shelter. Since most of the consumers are still in favour of brick shelter to build their toilet

shelter, such a new product innovation will face a lot of challenges.

NRG has a similar challenge to WaterSHED Venture. When it first started to do market

research and product testing, it found that the solar panels that their supplier produced are

not designed for the Cambodia market. Country climate with high humidity, heavy rain and

strong sun, needs a bit of adjustment to ensure the long term usage. NRG adopts the local

requirement such as climate and consumers budgets to build their own solar panel which are

still able to deliver high performance, but yet at a competitive price. This local adaptation

proves to be a fundamental strategy for success in showing to consumers that enterprises

do understand their needs, challenges and their living conditions – which consequently

create long term values for both parties (Govindarajan and Warren, 2016; Khanna et al.

2005; Katre and Salipante, 2012).

Commercial processes also a key challenge that social enterprises are facing. One of the

key issues is to accelerate growth, but they often look at the wrong areas to focus.

Interviewee A at Impact Hub Phnom Penh describes her experience working with

Cambodian social entrepreneurs (included existing entrepreneurs and the future ones) that

they often want to provide many solutions to consumers yet they did not understand that

their role in exploring problems or challenges of people and how to resolve them. If

entrepreneurs have the ability to select and identify the focus group, consumer segments,

they can resolve consumer’s pain points. It will help entrepreneurs to scale up their business

(Askhenas and Finn, 2016; Hull, 2016).

Chapter 4 Commercialisation Process

A sustainable commercialisation process is a core business capability for long-term success.

This chapter will employ creative strategy and innovation model to discuss about how to

architect social enterprises in Cambodia to become sustainable business model. Social

enterprises keep increasing with the number of NGOs transformations to social business in

recent year (SEC, 2016). The current outlook of social entrepreneurships are still widely

focused on their social mission instead of its enterprise business performance (Zastawny,

2014). Focusing on social values are the common mission for social enterprise but social

values are subjective, incommensurable and contingent (Nicholls, 2006). Nicholls (2016)

argues that it is important for the enterprise to understand the different of its Social Return

On Investment (SROI) and classic Return On Investment (ROI) of the business. Sustainable

in financial performance can make the enterprise continue its mission to create social

values, thus prioritising on business viability is a key priority to sustain the social enterprise

(Zastawny, 2014).

4.1 Social entrepreneurial society NGOs, foreign investors and international donors are key stakeholders to foster innovation

and development a country’s economy through their means of capital investment (Ionescu,

2015; Dalziel, 2007; Leydesdorff; 2006; The Economist, 2011). Stakeholders of social

enterprise need to have the same vision for future endeavour in social development to

manage the sustainability of societal changes (Ionescu, 2015; Dalziel, 2007).

Duckworth (2016) gives an example of ARZU – a social enterprise in Afghanistan – as a

foreign founder and explains how ARZU’s social innovation can transform livelihood and

shape culture in society. There are a lot of challenges as a foreigner to do social business in

another culture and country, and one of Duckworth challenges is to understand the need of

the people targeted. Charities and foreign aid through NGOs are not sustainable for country

economy and instead social enterprise does, Duckworth (2016) argues. Founder of ARZU

came from a develop society and carry different viable of market opportunity to connect from

one side of the world to another – most of the time from developing world to developed

world. The ability to connect the dots between opportunity for market and production or

service for entrepreneurship requires preconditions of means, opportunity and motive – in

order to succeed (Birkinshaw, 2016).

Through different literature reviews and real world examples in social innovation and

entrepreneurship creativity – this study arrives with new innovation model to commercialise

the process of social entrepreneurial society called “the four paradigm of social

entrepreneurial innovation”. It suggests that to enable social enterprise to sustain its

business performance to long-term serving and creating social values, there are four

paradigm that social entrepreneurs should follow (figure 5).

Figure 5: The Four Paradigms of Social Entrepreneurial Innovation

Source: Adapted from Birkinshaw (2016) ‘The 3 Preconditions for an Entrepreneurial Society’ Harvard Business Review; and Tidd and Bessant (2013) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change.

Motive paradigm Entrepreneur’s motivation, aspiration and vision to do what they want to transform society

also documented in different literatures. The motive paradigm in social entrepreneurial

innovation can help to evaluate each entrepreneur desires to have meaningful work, develop

their skills or to have freedom to make an impact in society (Birkinshaw, 2016). This

paradigm of social entrepreneurial innovation is based on the vision to transform their

purpose into commercial output – either through internal support (from inside knowledge of

individual entrepreneur or organisation) or external support with different stakeholders

adviser, consultant, business association or government agency) to support social enterprise

(Hansen and Birkinshaw, 2007). For example, ARZU’s founder created its social enterprise

with the belief of building viable local businesses in a key to drive changes in Afghanistan’s

society and economy. The enterprise also narrowed its focus to work with women who are

still living the culture that are not allowing them to work outside. This motivation is a key

driver to start a meaningful and impact social enterprise that will transform so many

unprivileged lives through social innovation (Duckworth, 2016). It is important that motive

paradigm need to be sustainable and not to let challenges along the way stop entrepreneurs

from achieving their vision. Zook (2016) argues that founder of the enterprise needs to

understand that their motivation must also engage with employees and key stakeholders to

align with business goals. To do this, it requires leaders to have the balanced approach

between start-up and scale up phrase to keep driving the passion of the enterprise from

fading away (Hull, 2016; Zook; 2016).

Social paradigmThe entrepreneurial mentality in social interaction is to transform the current social system

into a better one. Most of their work is look at new solution to respond to problems. However,

Kirsch et al. (2016) argues that tackling social challenges seem an obvious picture to do so

but it requires entrepreneurs to have a larger system to see the full picture of changes –

where new solution(s) can offer to a pressing social challenge(s). For example, WaterSHED

Venture develops its low cost latrine shelter to respond to slow consumer adaptation to clean

sanitation due to the high cost of building brick shelter. Their solution is not just looking to

offer for low-income family in rural Cambodia. The enterprise took the whole poor

communities in developing markets such as India and Bangladesh into consideration to

design the product to fit for poor market segment. WaterSHED Venture set a good example

of where social entrepreneurial innovation can make an impact in a large scale – based on

its creativity in design thinking process.

Moreover, social transformation requires different perspectives from people that affected

from new product or service innovation. It needs social entrepreneur to actively explore

them. Carefully observe and pay attention to variety of stakeholders will help to create an

ecosystem-based on the right product and service put to the right needs of people and

circumstances (Geraci and Chavez, 2016). When Amazon faced challenge in the Indian

cash economy and limited internet connection for its new e-commerce market, the company

observed the way to transform a new way for people to shop online. It creates a new-era of

e-commerce system where consumer can shop by paying cash and browse their orders in

an actual store where store’s owner equipped with internet connection. The shop owner acts

as Amazon selling agent and helps to connect customers to Amazon. This market

adaptation from Amazon have helped Indian consumers to have access to e-commerce and

as well as to increase local store businesses – thanks to customers visiting their store to

place an order on Amazon’s site.

Means paradigm Another paradigm of innovating social business require means behind it. Means can be

viable from knowledge, skills, funding or tools to run the business. Birkinshaw (2016)

describes means as the brainpower regardless of sector or type of business entrepreneurs

choose to do. However, one of social innovation obstacle is financial capital required to start

the business. Drucker (2007) argues that businesses need to have at least three years of

capital planning and the systems to control cash flow. Social enterprise needs to be able to

establish it financial and commercial stability within the first three years of trading in order to

achieve long-term success (Zastawny, 2014). In today’s technological world – start-up in

any sector can look for different platforms to sponsor its initial business venture such as

access to micro-finance and crowd funding which foster innovation growth (Stanko and

Henard, 2016). Social entrepreneurship can benefit from these funding platforms by having

the storyboard that well inform and inspiring. Backers of crowd funded project need a good

storyline such as audio or visual support as they have less access to resources and

information about the project compare to private equity investment (Gaskell, 2016).

Another form of means in doing social business is to build the brand of the social enterprise

with established firms. Entrepreneurs can use other firm’s existing supply chain channel to

help them operate their business – in other words start the venture with business to business

(B2B) rather than business to customer (B2C) (Duckworth, 2016). Moreover, strategic

partnerships with other stakeholders is a mean to work to grow employment and uplift the

business performance. This partnership should not be seen as a competition but as a tool to

transform peoples lives where social entrepreneur want to achieve. For example, Sevea

Consulting runs its Act Program to support social entrepreneur in the vision to help

entrepreneurs build sustainable business. In return, the company want achieve its social

value creation by developing rural community through social entrepreneurs and build its

consulting portfolio for potential businesses. WaterSHED Venture doing the similar way.

They work with local enterprises that already established as their main distribution channel

to sell its latrine shelter product which can help them reach more customers and create more

social impact for access to sanitation.

Market paradigm The market paradigm in social innovation is also like any classic marketplace. It is there to

ensure value is created for target consumers and the company. Simester (2016) reminds

why start-ups fail to enter the marketplace due to the failure of communicating their new

innovative product or service values to customers or customers did not interpret the same

value features as the company marketed. Almquist et al. (2016) conceptualise the elements

of values pyramid in four areas of social impact, life changing, emotional and functional as

extended values from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These elements of values can help

creative managers and enterprises to design, select and add value to their product or service

to win customers (Almquist et al. 2016). Figure 6 shows the list of element values with

examples of two social enterprises, NRG and WaterSHED Venture to illustrate element of

values where customer could describe about solar panel (NRG) and latrine shelter

(WaterSHED Venture). It is importance to note that the more element of values the

enterprise can have or add for their product or service, the more it likely to succeed in the

market competition (Almquist et al. 2016). However, not just element values is enough in

market paradigm. Christensen et a. (2016) argues that the more realistic of the storyboards

about the product or service are, the more decision that customer will make to buy them.

Novelty of a business story behind each product or service will help prospective customers

to decide on their purchase (Dahlem et al. 2010) but getting the story out is a hard work and

requires a lot of effort (Duckworth, 2016).

In addition, raising buyer performance is a key success for innovative market paradigm in

social entrepreneurial society. Exploiting consumer decision on social, emotional and

functional values features by communicating with them clearly to give the reason why they

should buy the company’s products or services instead of the existing solutions (Christensen

et al. 2016; Porter, 1985; Foxall et al. 1998). Christensen et a. (2016) further explains that

innovative enterprises have the ability to understand and know exactly the needs of

prospective customers before provide a perfect solution to them. For example, NRG designs

its solar panel to tailor the exact need of Cambodian market rather bring the whole existing

product that are being produce for countries like in Africa.

Figure 6: Example of value elements for social entrepreneurial products

Theme of value Value ElementsWhat are you product or service values?

NRGWaterSHED Venture

Social Impact Self-transcendence x x

Life Changing Provide hope x x

Self-actualisation x x

Motivation x x

Heirloom x x Affiliation/belonging x x

Emotional Reduce anxiety x x

Reward me x

Nostalgia

Design/aesthetics x x

Badge value x

Wellness x

Therapeutic value x

Fun/entertainment

Attractiveness x

Provide access x x

Functional Saves time x x

Simplifies x

Makes money x x

Reduce risk x

Organises x

Integrates x x

Connects

Reduces effort x

Avoid hassels x

Reduces cost x x

Variety

Sensory appeal

Inform

Source: adapted from Almquist, E., Senior, J. and Bloch, N. (2016) ‘The Element of Value’ Harvard Business Review.

4.2 Sustainable future for social innovation The future of social innovation in Cambodia requires a high level of participation from the

Cambodian people – said social enterprises in this study. Despite the positive growth and

development in recent years, one of the key factors is that most social enterprises are

founded by foreigners and is not yet widely understood from local people. Although it is a

good sign that Cambodia market attracts foreign investment, but limitation in local

investment and participation will have negative impact on the social enterprise sustainability

in Cambodia, said interviewee A, Impact Hub. WaterSHED Venture sees the low level of

local participation as a threat to sustainability. They work for the mission in working with

existing enterprises across the country to be their sale agent and train local enterprises to

take the business model to operate at local level. Govindarajan and Warren (2016) describe

local involvement in business operation and supply chain as proven success for both

consumer and supplier adaptation in doing business in emerging and developing market like

Cambodia (see Amazon example in Chapter 2, section 2.3). The collaboration from change-

maker, local citizen, government and social enterprise industry can be viewed through

Leydesdorff (2006) and Dalziel (2007) explanation as key stakeholders for successful

innovation (figure 7).

Figure 7: Triple Helix plus One – the sustainable partnership for social innovation

Source: Adapted from Leydesdorff, L. (2006) ‘The Knowledge-Based Economy’; Dalziel, M. (2007) ‘The Game of Innovation’.

Moreover, positioning social innovation in the right market paradigm is also a key factor for

the future sustainability. As Nicholls (2006) and Zastawny (2014) argue that social enterprise

need a viable business performance for the enterprise rather than just looking to achieve

social mission, both ROI and SROI should be balanced. Thus, the sustainable future for

social innovation requires strategic partners to work closely together to succeed its social

innovation goals. Social enterprise yet also need to ensure that their business performance

can perform and sustain in alignment with their social mission.

Chapter 5 Conclusions

The result of this study was analysed through a small sample of social enterprises in

Cambodia in creative strategy topics and its impact on social innovation. Different themes of

social entrepreneurship were identified through common patterns from social entrepreneurs

that contribute to social innovation literature and commercial practice in local context.

Interestingly more and more NGOs are now transforming their organisation to become social

enterprise in the vision for financial independent (from donors) and its sustainability to serve

their social goals. Moreover, the majority of social enterprises in Cambodia are founded and

being led by foreigners and there is still a limited number for local entrepreneurs becoming

change-makers. Organisations such as Impact Hub Phnom Penh is working to promote the

social business awareness among young and ambitious Cambodian to see social

entrepreneurship as the future for country economy and social development.

The study also found clear evidences that social entrepreneurial society in Cambodia is

currently practicing creative strategy in their business operations, such as strategic

partnership. However, due to limitation such as headcount, funding and awareness in social

business start-up, such creativities were not widely effective. The common error of social

entrepreneurs is focusing too much on their social mission and not effectively building their

enterprise to be sustainable, especially in term of financial independent. Nicholls (2006) and

Zastawny (2014) argue that social enterprise needs to have viable solutions to ensure its

ROI is balanced with its SROI to ensure the sustainability (figure 8).

Figure 8: Sustainable position for social entrepreneurship

In addition, Cambodia is also a challenging destination for social enterprises when it comes

to hiring skilled employees. Highly educated candidates tend to seek employment in well

established businesses and start-ups in social business may not be able to afford to hire

them, according to NRG’s founder and director. One of Amabile (1998)’s theory for fostering

creativity in workplace is work-group feature may not widely effective solution for a small

start-up with limited resources and size of business like social enterprises in Cambodia. This

gives an example of the limitation of how global theory, especially when its studied in

developed markets, cannot be solely implemented the local emerging market contexts, thus

such creative strategy will need to tailor more toward the local circumstances.

This study also included the commercial theory where social enterprises can be

implemented for sustainable growth. The study conceptualises a new innovation model for

social entrepreneurship where each innovative paradigms can guide to a new social

entrepreneurial innovation space. Last but not least the commercial success also need to be

sustainable. Leydesdorff (2006) and Dalziel (2007) were adapted into triple helix plus one

model where four stakeholders, university, change-maker, industry and government are

require to collaborate together for the long-term sustainable future.

Limitation and recommendationAlthough this study has conducted a well-planned research, there are a few limitations to this

paper. First of all, the interview process should be conducted in person where interviewer

and interviewee can interact better than via video call. The personal interaction allows the

interviewer to observe more carefully in the responded answers and give more flexibility to

follow-up and re-conduct the interview should there be not enough information. Moreover,

the number of sample could be increased to improve the validity and reliability of the study.

Given the result of the study, key factors such as enterprises being founded by foreigners

should be discussed further. Additional research could be undertaken to understand their

role and impact on social innovation in a local context such as Cambodia – both positively

and negatively. Academic research should be also extended to bring its high level theory

that heavily discussed in developed market to balance the paper’s focus on emerging

markets. The limitation of social enterprise and innovation understanding can be a barrier to

future growth of the sector and such clarification should be widely informed. An additional

focus on the public audiences rather than just around the academic group or social

entrepreneurial society could be explored.

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Appendix 1 Interview guide and questionnaires

1- Why do you consider your enterprise as social business?

2- What is your opinion about social innovation in Cambodia?

3- Describe the challenges that you may have or had as a social start-up, and how do or did you

resolve them?

4- Do you use creative strategy? If yes, please explain what are they?

5- Do you think that creative strategy has impact on your social enterprise innovation?

6- In your opinion, what is the future outlook of social innovation in Cambodia? And how do you

think we can do it to make it better?

Appendix 2 Interview Transcriptions

2.1 Interviewee A, Impact Hub Phnom Penh

1- Why do you consider your enterprise as social business? Answer: We are an incubator hub and co-working space company to stir the passion and innovation of similar minded to support and learn from each other. We support social entrepreneur by various technical, legal advice and business model support. We also provide training to student and future entrepreneur of how to do social business in Cambodia.

2- What is your opinion about social innovation in Cambodia?Answer: Cambodia is a largest NGOs country to support country development, but currently most financial aids is only for government projects and NGOs start looking to do their social business on the side or entirely switching the organisation to social enterprise for its sustainability. The pro of this situation is that they are able to continue their business for the social good causes and create job and market demand for local. However, they are also limited the diversity of social innovation and the competition as real world business. NGOs still mainly operate the business to focus on their core NGO’s vision (which is still for the good cause) but still not focus on society new challenges and problem and how they can resolve with their business innovation.

3- Describe the challenges that see social start-up are facing and how do they resolve them? (edited from original question)Answer: Local entrepreneur and future to be entrepreneur here tend to focus on solutions of what they can do in business, but not focus what are the real problems that people have and how can they (as the business) offer to resolve those problems for people. It is not just for social start-up but this kind of common challenges is also apply to any start-up. The only way for them to have (at least a good business plan/idea) is to first define a real problem and issues that people have and then later they can think what the solutions are that they can offer to tackle those issues.

4- Do you use creative strategy? If yes, please explain what are they?Answer: We do. Mainly collaboration with different stakeholders that strategically both parties can be benefits from the project and creating values to our target groups, such as social enterprise, students and local community. We run various programs social entrepreneurship academy to study tour (adapted from India) to observe social challenges and turn those to business opportunity to transform societal changes.

5- Do you think that creative strategy has impact on your social enterprise innovation? Answer: Absolutely and the most sustainable strategy of growing social innovation is to have a real good collaboration by main three actors, government, private sector and international donors, such as NGOs or investors. They need to work together in order to transform the societal changes.

6- In your opinion, what is the future outlook of social innovation in Cambodia? And how do you think we can do it to make it better?Answer: Social innovation in Cambodia still need to have more involvement from local entrepreneur itself. They are still not widely interested in doing social business and tend to leave this to NGOs and government. But Cambodia has a good progress in this sector and we can see that the future is going to be better innovative in the sector, thank to growing young enthusiastic and educated generation.

2.2 Interviewee B, WaterSHED Venture (non-recorded)

1- Why do you consider your enterprise as social business?

Answer: WaterSHED Venture is an alliance of our NGO which is already mission for social development in sanitation, hygiene, and local enterprise development. What our social business does is to continue those mission in a larger scale to create more impact in a long term sustainable way as possible.

2- Can you describe the challenges that you may have for your social venture?Answer: We have done a lot work so far but we still need to market our products to win the big market commercialisation. And until today we are still preparing for the next step to take off our venture into marketplace.

3- Do you use creative strategy? If yes, please explain what are they?Answer: We use technology adaptation in local context to operate our business. For example, our product design must be suitable for developing markets, but yet still offer a high performance. We build business with preparing a wining team who are best in their role and passionate about the project. We constantly looking for new innovative ideas to change the way we work, design our product and even producing them.

4- Do you think that creative strategy has impact on your social enterprise innovation? Answer: We spent two years in designing and prototyping our latrine shelter with various trial and error strategy plans, so yes, if we are not being creative, we would not be able to stand where we are today.

5- In your opinion, what is the future outlook of social innovation in Cambodia? And how do you think we can do it to make it better?Answer: There is a huge potential in this sector in Cambodia. One concern is NGOs that mission in Cambodia without exit strategy. They may still able to lobbying for more capital from international donors but the only way to make sustainable is to have those business manage and lead by local enterprise.

2.3 Interviewee C, Sevea Consulting

1- Why do you consider your enterprise as social business? Answer: Our main mission is to work with social entrepreneur and organisation for a sustainable development in energy, environment and rural development. We support and advice social enterprise for a long term business grow and success.

2- What is your opinion about social innovation in Cambodia?Answer: Cambodia has a great innovation potential but yet it is limited by that most social business here are founded and managed by foreigners. We need more local people to stand up for this social development sectors and see it as equal as opportunity to make money but yet also transform for positive change in the society.

3- Describe the challenges that you see social start-up have, and how should they resolve them? (edited version)Answer: Start-ups are limiting its grow potential by trying to do everything with a just one or a few people. They need to also take into an account of how to have enough human resources at least if they want to be sustainable. Most of the time because of lacking in human resources, founder(s) is/are trying to work on their operations and cannot focus on sales or competitions. Time management and tasks delegation is a key to resolve these issues.

4- Do you use creative strategy? If yes, please explain what are they?Answer: At Sevea we combined business strategy with our core vision and value. For example, our strategy in Act Program to provide highly skills students to do internship with social entrepreneur is because we understand that supporting skills employee will help enterprise to grow the business. And we took their real case challenges as a pro bono case which will help us to gain public recognition in our work and build our portfolio for future businesses, through continuing support and advising to social enterprises.

5- Do you think that creative strategy has impact on your social enterprise innovation? Answer: Totally. We constantly looking at different approaches to support and advise entrepreneurs to build a success and sustainable business, which is why, Act Program is created as a solution to work closer and provide an innovative solutions to enterprise at a real time problems or challenges. Thank to collaboration from university students, entrepreneurs and Sevea teams, we are able to make a positive impact to social enterprise here.

2.4 Interviewee D, NRG Solutions

1) Company Milestone: 2012 Started under existing NGO umbrella : Testing idea, market research, prototype

product, train distribution model 2013 Registered as Business Institution: Set up local entrepreneurs partnership with

support such as marketing tools, samples, basic commission fees, and using existing customer as brand ambassador to promote the product.

2014 Only focus in one location, Kompong Thom as priority and selling business with the company salesmen. Then trigger to market in 2 more locations, Kompong Cham and Kompong Speu. Salesman needs to recruit local entrepreneur to promote the sales activity.

2) Describe current and future strategyAnswer: Current strategy: Own staff as salesperson, Local entrepreneur and existing customer to promote the sale activity, Partnership with NGO and other organisation to work in the community. Future Strategy: (i) Looking to improve sale pitch, more efficient and higher productivity, decide geography selling area. (ii) Activity to improve the product: joining competition and workshop for social start-up and energy solutions.

3) How did you find new creative idea?Answer: Mostly from experience in the field with customer, we try what works and what does not work. Existing resources from reading and example from other businesses and entrepreneurs from other country. Adaptation process is a key. Product were originally design for Africa and India market and not well suit in Cambodia, such as heavy rain climate. Thus, the company decides to only buy suitable components and do the installation as final products in Cambodia.

4) Can you describe the challenges that you may have for your social venture?Answer: (i) Too many competitors for a small market. current competitors/solar company (NRG, Lighting Engineering Solution, Kamwork, Entrepreneur Demand (Te Betong), CamSolar, BNP), (ii) Managing people: leadership and management of employees, finance, salary ranking, lack of management team. Limited ability to employ skill staff.

5) Commercial information:Answer: (i) Average selling price (solar panel): 200USD to 800USD (most popular ranking is 600USD which comes with TV, Fan and 4 lights. (ii) Funded: financially with support of friends and family as initial starting capitals and in 2015 able to secured investor capital at 100,000 USD.

ukthaun, p. msc dissertation 2016

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