Solving Complex Problems

Abstract

Three distinct literatures address social change: social entrepreneurship, community action research, and social marketing. While these activities have a shared goal to create social change, each orientation approaches their activities from a different perspective. The current work explores how macro-social marketing efforts can benefit from alternative orientations to enhance enduring social change. Social entrepreneurship highlights the importance of enduring resources and considering scalability. Community action highlights the importance of obtaining legitimacy and buy-in from multiple entities in the social change system. Social marketing highlights the importance of an end-user perspective and the application of behavioral theories to create systematic change. This work describes a case study in the Kenyan education context to highlight the value of this approach.