| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 科技管理與智慧財產研究所 === 102 === Social innovation and social enterprises have risen in popularity since The Nobel Peace Prize was given to Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, in 2006. The Grameen Bank does not follow the operational rules of a traditional bank, rather, hoping to create a society without poverty, the Grameen Bank created its own values and business model. Yet many social enterprises are unable to do the same as the Grameen Bank, as they require donations or subsidies to balance profits and losses.
Given that social enterprises seem to make breaking even their main target, social entrepreneurs must work to find stable business models with development potential.
During a field visit to a social enterprise, the author observed that the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association in Hong Kong managed to overcome the difficulty of breaking even, and had naturally developed a two-sided market model. Hence, the first purpose of this research is to understand how the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association built their own business model. Second, a literature review was conducted to distinguish social enterprise business models from traditional models. How many kinds of social enterprise business models are there? Specifically, the following research questions were examined: What is the business model of Senior Citizen Home Safety Association? How does the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association use a two-sided market strategy to plan for future development? How can a two-sided market strategy result in atypical outcomes?
According to the case study analysis, it was discovered that the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association platform triggered positive cross-side network effects and a same-side network effect. The platform was able to grow independently, leading to a cost structure of economies of scale and scope. Their gross profit margin has been between 80% and 90% over the past four years.
The Senior Citizen Home Safety Association views social problems from a whole new viewpoint. Rather than view social issues as “problems”, they are conceived of as social resources that have yet to be effectively distributed. We can connect different social resources to form a two-sided market, and then create new social and economic value. This perspective can be adopted when considering how to stimulate social innovation and develop social enterprises in the future.
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