Analyzing Corporate Social Entrepreneurship Specific to Knowledge Economy with a Focus on the Romanian Economic Context

Abstract

The knowledge economy is defined, according to the World Bank, through the integration of its four main component elements: education and training, innovation systems, information infrastructure, economic incentives and institutional regime. The first part of the paper reconciles knowledge economy and corporate social entrepreneurship, while the second part focuses on the education and training, and innovation pillars of the knowledge economy, and more specifically it resorts to the framework of corporate social entrepreneurship as a transformational innovation strategy for company growth. The current investigation has been conducted by means of case study method having the following research question: “How does corporate social entrepreneurship manifest in corporations?”., accompanied by secondary research questions such as: “How does the company mobilize its resources to create an innovative product/ service/ approach in order to tackle the social issue?, How does the company contribute to local development?”. The findings revealed that the social issue of high levels of nitrates in the waters inspired the company to combine a testing tool (technological innovation) with marketing communication which eventually resulted in an innovative approach for the company to increase the loyalty of their customers and to reach out for new ones. The present paper has been developed based on the author’s doctoral research.

Keywords

• knowledge economy
• business models
• CSR
• business strategy
• innovation