Social entrepreneurs: the factors that influence their success.

Abstract

This thematic paper tried to find out the factors that influence the success of Thai social entrepreneurs by looking at the identified factors that have been concluded and summarized which consisted of 13 factors, and tested which factors can be applied and influenced the success of Thai social entrepreneurs by using a case study of a social enterprise in Thailand, Farmto Co.,Ltd. FarmTo is an online market platform that was founded in 2015 with the aim to solve two key social issues, first it aims to act as a distribution channel for farmers to sell their organic farm products, and second is to help solving Thai farmers’ debt problems. The result from this paper shows that not all pre-identified factors are applicable to this social enterprises. There are only seven factors that influence the success of Thai social entrepreneurs;(i) Presence of demonstrated need and identifiable group of beneficiary (ii) Acceptance by the community and involvement of the beneficiaries (iii) Social capital (Structure capital, Relational capital, Cognitive capital) (vi) Sound financials and reliable source of funding (v) Dedication of the leadership team (vi) Organized structure with well-defined responsibilities (vii) Emphasis on learning and improvement