The Role of Social Entrepreneurship

Doug Mills/ The New York Times

I love watching the Olympics. I remember growing up, having a schedule highlighted with all of my favorite sporting events: basketball, water polo and handball for the summer, and snowboard half pipe, alpine skiing and the skeleton luge (does that still exist?) for the winter. Now, with my NBC Sochi app downloaded, I’m prepared to spend too much time at The Duck in the coming weeks in order to see my favorite events and contestants.  But in reading about the upcoming games recently, it got me thinking of another form of competition: competition in business.

Here are the top sponsors for the 2014 Sochi Olympics:

http://www.sochi2014.com/en/partners-about

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is entirely privately funded with 45% of its revenue coming from corporate sponsorship. I know this makes sense. Usually companies with the most money give the most money, and the Olympics are a great international stage for marketing. But am I the only one who scoffs at seeing McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Dow as the leading sponsors for the Olympic games?

Yes, I am being cynical, but in social entrepreneurship (and I consider supporting the Olympics as such), do the ends justify the means? Does Coca-Cola’s 5by20 initiative or the Ronald McDonald House make up for the damaging effects of CAFO’s or oil refineries for plastic bottles?

Obviously, the demand exists for the products that companies like these provide. However, I believe that corporations cannot depend on social entrepreneurship to save face. To me, this method of business is gamesmanship rather than sportsmanship. In order to gain my support as a consumer, I need to see that the processes that create their products are done so with a healthy degree of respect and innovation towards sustainable practices.

If topics like this interest you (the reader), and you’re an undergraduate student, please consider submitting an essay or creative work to the 7^th annual DePauw Undergraduate Ethics Symposium titled Virtue and Victory: Ethical Challenges in Competitive Life. The due date for submissions is coming to a close this Friday, February 7^th. Essay and cover page can be sent to prindleues@depauw.edu.