What is Current in Entrepreneurship?
Social Impact of Entrepreneurship

Today we hear a great deal about the economic impact of entrepreneurship. More companies are being started than ever before in American history; new and emerging companies are the source of all net new jobs in our economy; women are starting firms at far faster rates than men; 70% of high school juniors and seniors want to start their own companies when they are out of school; thirteen million Americans–25 million if you count part time entrepreneurs–are now running their own businesses from home; and so on.

But I don’t want to talk about the economic impact of entrepreneurship, as significant as it is. I want to focus instead on the social impact of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not just an economic phenomenon. It is a force that creates social value and a resource for community development.

In “Building Community,” medal of freedom winner John Gardner presents an insightful examination of the importance of community and a provocative analysis of the need that individuals have for identification with and empowerment within the communities in which they live. He emphasizes that “Where community exists it confers upon its members identity, a sense of belonging, a measure of security.” I am convinced that entrepreneurship can help confer identity, belonging and security not only on those who elect to start and grow enterprises, but also on those who join them in that effort and on the wider environment in which they operate.