Social Entrepreneurs as the Paragons of Shared Value Creation? A Critical Perspective

The financial crisis of 2007/08 has caused many to question the basic premises of the current business system (Kaletsky, 2010). Porter and Kramer (2011) suggest that the purpose of the corporation needs to be redefined. They posit that the corporation, rather than merely pursuing financial value creation set out to pursue shared value creation. They further declare Social Entrepreneurs the paragons of said shared value creation. In this paper I critically analyze the pathway of shared value creation in three leading social enterprises. Employing a genealogical perspective I highlight that very innovative shared value creating ventures ended up opting out of shared value creation strategies and embraced either financial or social value primacy strategies. As such I question the power of the shared value creation notion