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This paper sets out to describe several contemporary models of social entrepreneurship, along with the historical context of African nations typically receiving aid. It also seeks to critique three aid‐providing sectors – i.e. charity, government, and social entrepreneurship – with benefits and to explore the limits of each. It also aims to explore the perceptions of aid recipients in an East African village to determine their views of social entrepreneurship compared with other types of foreign aid.

Open‐ended interviews were conducted with village elders to establish an exploratory research foundation.

In general, village leaders were more favorable to social entrepreneurship efforts because they offered the possibility of self‐reliance and sustainability over time. Large government foreign aid largesse rarely reached villagers, so had little effectiveness in relieving their poverty.

Several limitations are evident with the case study method used for the research. Future research is necessary to transfer the findings of the study to larger population segments, other organizations, and other national groupings. Expanded research methodologies, based on theoretical development and quantitative methods, will be required to further enhance the findings. Thus, the research is limited in both methodology and sampling population. The efficacy and limitations of various models of social entrepreneurship must also be tested for effectiveness, scope, scale, and sustainability. Comparative research would lend credibility to the findings.

The research findings suggest that villagers are generally more positive about local efforts compared with larger government projects, which rarely had a visible, significant impact on the villagers' lives. Leaders and villagers will continue partnerships that develop their businesses with the intention of providing for the social good of the community. Practical programs that develop marketing activities targeted to the specific goal of the business model would be an important step in furthering the goals of each model. For example, developing investment capital markets may require more advertising and promotion to raise awareness of their existence among potential donors. Additionally, local entrepreneurs involved in a social program may benefit from marketing education that enhances knowledge of customer needs and product development.

Because of the difficulties in establishing large research programs abroad, as well as in gaining the trust of local populations on a short‐term basis, the interviews represent a meaningful first step in understanding perceptions about social entrepreneurship and larger foreign aid programs.

In recent years, organisations around the world have been seriously affected by a range of economic, political and social upheavals that have gathered momentum in most parts of the globe. The viability of the conventional (pyramidal) organisational structures is being challenged in conjunction with major shifts in the roles of mid and top managers. In many countries, the pace of the above socio‐economic events and uncertainties is happening at an unprecedented pace. Some markets are showing signs of potential gigantic expansions while others (historically prosperous) are on the verge of complete collapse (Dent, 1991). In responding to the socio‐economic challenges of the nineties, organisations (across the board) have resorted to dismantling the conventional pyramidal structure and adopting so‐called “leaner” structures (see Zeffane, 1992). The most common struggle has been to maintain market share in an economic environment increasingly characterised by excess labour supply (Bamber, 1990; Green & Macdonald, 1991). As organisations shifted their strategies from “mass production” to “post‐fordism” (see, for example Kern and Schumann, 1987), there has been a significant tendency to emphasise flexibility of both capital and labour in order to cater for the niche markets which are claimed to be rapidly emerging, world‐wide. This has resulted in massive organisational restructuring world‐wide.