Dr Alex Bignotti, a senior lecturer in the Department of Business Management, won the 2018 Emerald African Management Research Fund Award with a research project entitled ‘The role of social capital in the emergence of social entrepreneurship in previously disadvantaged communities’. The award, which is focussed on fostering a research culture driven by growth and sustainability in Africa, is given to African-based research projects deemed to make a significant contribution to theory and its application, and to benefit the social good.
“South Africa is one of the countries with the highest levels of income disparity and lowest levels of social entrepreneurial activity. Given that social entrepreneurship arises to solve social issues, this scenario is quite puzzling,” says Dr Bignotti.
His project aims to uncover the ways in which members of previously disadvantaged communities can successfully identify, evaluate and exploit social entrepreneurial opportunities, and how their social and cultural capital influence these social entrepreneurial activities.
“Social entrepreneurial activities should arguably be flourishing in previously disadvantaged communities, where most social issues are found, and potentially also curb unemployment in those areas,” he concludes.
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