Social entrepreneurship and the creation of a third sector organization: the case study of Aliança

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyze the creation of a third sector organization, named Aliança Empreendedora. Initially the founders socio-economic profiles were identified together with an analysis of the main reasons for the organization start up. Afterwards, it is described how the venture creation process occurred, highlighting its objectives, the projects developed by the organization as well as the difficulties met by the founders during such process. The adopted research strategy is the unique case study. Evidences were collected by personal interviews and documental analysis. It was found that the main motivation to the organization start up were the socio-economic benefits that it could bring to the people from the local poor communities by supporting their small businesses, thus generating employment and income. The main difficulties pointed out by social entrepreneurs during the organization creation process were typical of new enterprises such as shortage of financial resources and lack of knowledge of their sector.