Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Fourth Sector

It is important to recognize the role of the solidarity economy in the development of a community; in the literature, several cases of successful experiences on this type have been found. The typical case in the eastern Antioquia sub-region is the municipality of Granada whose, after being victims of violent actors, inhabitants through the cooperative sector (fourth sector) have managed to move on from the social, cultural and economic point of view.

Therefore, the Fourth Sector as a resilience mechanism in a community can contribute to improving conditions after a population has been the victim of a natural disaster. This work demonstrates the way the Fourth Sector can be involved in the post-disaster phase without interfering in the different aid and rescue operations carried out by government-assisted relief agencies. In trying to design this kind of general protocol, humanitarian logistics and the social area of cooperatives come together to create the term humanitarian social logistic, which is the objective of this essay and lay the foundations for this theory.

The methodology of this research work is retrospective quantitative with a descriptive scope, based on the events that occurred in the eastern Antioquia sub-region and how the affected communities did or did not move forward and which organizations helped to rebuild them. As a result, the general procedure of how the Fourth Sector would improve the living conditions of the possible affected community is obtained, and thus this sector can significantly help restore these communities since the social, cultural and economic.

Therefore, it will be presented to solidarity economy organizations and the government so that it is included in the public policies of solidarity and social economy.

Medellin’s social solidarity enterprises are leveraging education to face the fourth industrial revolution from the fourth sector (economic profitability and a commitment to the environment and society), concerning improving society from relevance and compliance variables. At the same time, linked to the strategic line, one of the Ten-Year Social and Solidarity Economy Plan for Medellin 2016 to 2025, called education and training in solidarity culture, proposes new challenges by incorporating the fourth industrial revolution. The objective is to explain the conditions of relevance and compliance of teaching the social solidarity economy to promote the fourth industrial revolution in the fourth sector to obtain financial benefits to invest in social benefits. The methodology implemented was a nine-question questionnaire with a Likert scale (1–6) to 36 managers of the solidarity sector that promotes social education in the fourth sector in the city of Medellin. We found that 75% of the managers expressed considering that the cooperatives contribute with money or material to promote the study and 83.3% consider appropriating the contribution to learning the studies of the managers of the solidarity organizations were classified as carrying out activities dedicated to education, training, and cooperative information, while 93.4% stated that they supported education and cultural activities in the communities. In conclusion, cooperatives have relevance toward solidarity education from the fourth industrial revolution that helps to apply and improve the fourth sector, but its implementation fails because there is no conscience of it.

This chapter presents theoretical aspects of social innovation, focusing on its conceptual development and exploring the novelties emerging from the consolidation of a fourth sector in the economy. The text provides a brief analysis of the history of the Portuguese social sector, highlighting particularities of its evolution and of how the transition between political regimes affected the social sector and the State. Considering the influence of the European integration process, the participation in the Eurozone and the single currency rules as well as the 2008 global crisis, the analysis suggests that a process of commodification of the Portuguese Welfare State and a growth of the social sector are occurring. Social innovation and the fourth sector play a role in this transformation.

Medellin City, in Colombia, is seeking to create an innovative and more inclusive future, since the end of the violent era of the 1980–1990s. A combination of public, private, and community resources seems to make it possible, through entrepreneurship with positive impacts.

The forced renovation of the city was done through a clear intent of complete social integration, despite the large inequalities and a culture of violence and illegality. The public sector allowed resources to large infrastructure, thanks to decentralization politics. This benefited the private sector, first the large companies as main suppliers and then the small organizations, integrated in the supply chain or by entrepreneurial programs.

On the other hand, the higher education sector and the nonprofits were fundamental to form the new generations, increase relationships between actors, and push for real inclusion of all the Medellin sectors. This mainly resulted in an extremely dynamic creative sector and a real preoccupation of all citizens for improving poor-neighborhoods welfare, materialized in local non-for-profit organizations with positive social impact. As a result, Medellin also showed effective communication toward foreigners, which established nonprofit or business activities within the city.

Collected data and interviews from relevant actors of the Medellin ecosystem showed the more relevant connections between stakeholders, which are making possible the raise of a regional hub for the fourth sector. This hub has Latin American classical biases, which make it relevant to be replicable inside the region, but also could be inspiration for other developing parts of the planet.

The “Club Deportivo Fortuna Kirol Elkartea” (“Club Deportivo” and “Kirol Elkartea” means Sports Club in Spanish and Basque, the two co-official languages in the region where is geographically located.) Sports Club is an organisation that works to promote a wide range of different sports, to encourage competitive and recreational sport at the grassroots level and to organise events open to the public. The best-known popular event is the Behobia/San Sebastián 20 km race that each year brings together more than 30,000 runners on the second Sunday in November. As the organisation clearly has a social mission, its ability to make an impact is mainly conditioned by the results of the commercial activity generated by the race. This is a clear case in which we can see just how fluid the boundary is that separates the traditional non-profit sector and the private one, and as a result, it is necessary to talk about a fourth sector, which is also known as the “For-benefit organisation” sphere. This case is also particularly interesting as in the fourth sector explicit references to sports associations, sports clubs or sports organisations in general are practically non-existent, when the economic and social impact that sport and the practice of physical exercise has is undeniable. The methodology used is the single case study approach, and reports, internal studies, web pages, archives of presentations, audiovisual archives, visits to the organisation, attendance at presentations of events and press conferences and interviews with the management team have been made use of as sources of evidence. The analysis of this case makes it possible to conclude that the sports association studied here can be classified as a “For-benefit organisation”. “Best practices” in the use of relevant business management tools for organisations in the fourth sector devoted to sport and in other fields can also be obtained from its development as an organisation. Its strategic thinking, market orientation and public-private collaboration form a triangle that has raised an organisation that started out as being local and amateur to the level of a competitive “For-benefit organisation” that can stand out as an international source of inspiration.

This chapter is devoted to showcasing the results of a project called Partnership for local development in the Czech Republic. This was one of the first initiatives to informally create a space for developing the fourth sector on the local level. We found out– that the increasing role in the fourth sector activities is played by the public institutions and local residents rather than local private companies based on the results of the project in Brno, the Czech Republic. We see an emergence of hybrid organisations and initiatives which are created by multiple institutions and key stakeholders in the city of Brno. Effective cooperation and communication between three key stakeholders—local residents, public institutions and private companies—are key to the acceleration of the fourth sector activities further.

In Portugal, the health-care system crisis has given rise to a heated debate about the State’s role in ensuring health-care access and has raised the emergence of innovative measures. Home hospitalization is one modality of assistance that ensures the health care provider with differentiation, complexity, and intensity of hospital level, for a limited period, depending on the expression of patients will and gains in emotional comfort. Home hospitalization changes the State’s role as sponsor, regulator and provisor of goods and services that materialize in Portugal, the universal right to free health care. Thus, with in-home hospitalization, the State shares responsibilities in health care with civil society, and she begins to retake responsibilities that State had relieved her from, in the past. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse and understand how hospitalization at home can become an innovative tool in health policies and how it can transform State’s role while main provider of health care in Portugal, especially for those in need, and how it can also transform civil society’s role in preventing social risk. Providing health care exclusively through public institutions is politically and economically tough; the experience of home hospitalization in Elva’s municipality and the data that our research collected seem to demonstrate that home hospitalization can be a civil society rebuilder and can be a relief to State’s efforts and it can reinforce the importance of balancing the State, market and civil society triangle.

The proposed chapter deals with the fourth sector (4S) infrastructure based on the case study of the city of Havířov (the Czech Republic), its central heating company (HTS—Havířovská teplárenská) as well as with its non-profit endowment fund “Heat on the palm” (TND—Nadační fond Teplo na dlani), their activities and style of operation. The chapter touches on the scientific branches of the 4S, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and strategic management.

The main goal and purpose of the chapter are to characterize the 4S ecosystem and its dynamic equilibrium with the city of Havířov, which represents that kind of municipality-based activities in the Czech Republic.

The case study is methodologically supported by a theoretical introduction into basic concepts and definitions, review of relevant scientific literature, analytical and synthetic approach to the open and reserved information sources, interviews with representatives incorporated into the factual content of the text, SWOT analysis, strategic proposals and graphical outputs form the methodology of the chapter.

The descriptive case study results of the 4S ecosystem are structured as follows: basic characteristics and historical background of the city Havířov, localization, twin cities’ population, social sphere, municipal and non-profit organizations and enterprises, sustainable enterprising, labour market, schools, national minorities, safety, crime and drug prevention, sport, cultural events, volunteering and awarding, associations, cooperatives, churches, smart city, digitization, infrastructure, bike sharing, gender policy, COVID-19 measures and SWOT analysis. The 4S and CSR activities of HTS and TND are characterized as well.

The main results show a well-established and robust ecosystem of the 4S of the city of Havířov based on its municipal and private sector cooperation struggling to track the sustainable goals in all spheres of citizen life. Being aware of the dynamic development, further strategic goals highlighting economy, workforce, security, management, education, culture and leisure, healthcare and social sphere, transport and infrastructure are suggested by the municipal strategic plan. In conclusion, the authors suggest further improvements regarding small water cycle, public–private partnership (PPP) and community self-sustainability projects.

Corporate Social Responsibility is one of the most studied themes over the last decades, both at organizational and at academic levels. It has assumed a very relevant role in companies because the goal is to increase the quality of life of the employees, the organization as a whole, and the communities, improving the current socioeconomic scenarios.

In the present chapter is carried out one analysis descriptive of practices of Responsibility Social Corporate (RSC) existing in the Association of Pensioners, Pensioners and Elderly Flower of Lavender, institution private of Solidarity Social the County of Sintra. Thus, the purpose of this work is to analyze the perception of the employees, in that it relates to their practice of Responsibility Social through the method of study of the case.

In the theoretical review, the concept of IPSS is approached, the evolution of the concept of CSR, and some conceptual models observed in the academic literature are presented. Then, some public SR policies are identified. Preliminary results suggest that, in general, social solidarity institutions are engaging in their public policy strategies for Social Responsibility.

This chapter is about topics related to entrepreneurship in the fourth sector and the orientation to specific ecosystems that promote new companies and characterizes common and innovative business models, verifying whether the companies under study have incorporated corporate social responsibility and sustainability, as well as the possibility that these are transformative in their corporate systems and may have characteristics of companies in the fourth sector. In this sense, the objective of this research was to analyze the position of companies in relation to the fourth sector, and if there is the intention to follow the trend to produce with sustainability and for social welfare, based on this approach, this chapter will have as mission to present a comparison of the studies carried out in 2018 and 2019 to microenterprises of Tulancingo, Hidalgo, Mexico, considering a systemic approach in which the inputs, processes, and results of the system were studied; as part of the results, the variables CSR principles of ISO 26000, CSR issues of ISO 26000, and assessment of the environment are analyzed. An analysis of 400 micro-companies in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, Mexico, was carried out, and the main results were that the companies under study intend to continue with the trend of producing with sustainability and social responsibility since in the variables analyzed of social responsibility regarding ISO 26000 principles and issues, as well as the assessment of the environment, they tend to be in complete agreement significantly, so the applicability to these topics is favorable.

The concept of social innovation refers to the development and implementation of adequate and sustainable solutions to the current social and environmental problems of economies. To this end, social innovation is increasingly based on business models on the fourth sector that create or capture social value and generate positive impacts on society, especially in the most vulnerable groups. The fourth sector allows the confluence and partnership of organizations that respond to social and environmental problems. However, the study of this distinct sector and its connection with social innovation is still poorly studied. This chapter aims to explore trends in social innovation in the fourth sector in Portugal through a set of three case studies where different partnerships seek creative and efficient solutions to social problems: the Khan Academy, VOGUI Águeda Tomorrowland and the Mozart Pavilion. This investigation shows how the public, private and non-profit sectors work together to develop strategies and solve citizenship and community problems, allowing the identification of successful ways of collaboration.

Extremadura is a developing region in the west of Spain, in Europe, where the Fourth Sector could grow up under the social, green and circular economy strategy promoted by the public authorities as regional policy. However, the Fourth Sector is not adequately characterized in the region, so it is difficult to place such initiatives on the map. Its economic weight, environmental and social value are also unknown, and even the promoters of the ideas themselves do not know that their activity is located within the Fourth Sector or their activity covers some of the different Sustainable Development Goals, since there is no public register of companies that develop their activity in the Fourth Sector. Due to the current unknowledge about this economic sector, this chapter approach the sector in the region through a quantitative-qualitative research to seed light for practitioners and policymakers.

Marketing efforts administration for business opportunities management is an essential knowledge technology for two development challenges in Cuba: productive enchainments and foreign investment. The state enterprises or business social entrepreneurs in Cuba are recently encouraged on their function as profit organizations with social responsibility, blended to business operation and financial value creation. Even though there are changes in policies and laws favoring a new economic model, the enterprises’ participation in business is limited. An outcome to this problem is to consider the study of marketing efforts administration on state enterprises becoming the emerging fourth sector in Cuba for development. The work focuses on knowledge and performing gaps of Cuban enterprises through a factual study. The causes, conditions, potentialities, limitations, and innovative theoretical concepts fitting the country are determined: business opportunities management of foreign investment, and the ecosystem of the cooperative relationships to foreign investment at the territorial level. The work’s main contributions are the marketing efforts administration integrated vision as a knowledge technology tool to ease the enterprises’ opportunity findings and strong business (foreign investment and productive enchainments) and a selection of the most remarkable enterprises with business opportunities potential influencing socioeconomic development at the local level. Suggestions to the fourth sector enterprises are given at the end to invigorate the use of marketing efforts administration.