The phenomenon of social businesses: Some insights from Israel

The past five years have seen a tremendous interest in market-driven social ventures, especially since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus in 2006.Yunus, in his book (2008) analyzes primarily his efforts to eliminate poverty in Bangladesh through microlending, encouraging individuals, particularly women, to open their own businesses on the basis of small loans-a system that has existed in the West for a long time. Yet he also introduces the broader concept of building a ‘social business’, namely a business venture with a social (or environmental) goal. The concept of building an organization on the basis of two equally important pillars-the business and the social-is intriguing and presents major conceptual as well as practical and policy challenges.