Collective Social Entrepreneurship as a Collaborative Strategy to Reduce Poverty in Nigeria

This research project focuses on the role of collective social entrepreneurship as a collaborative strategy to reduce poverty in Nigeria. The Nigerian government, particularly since the structural adjustment programme of the mid 1980s, has put in place policies and programmes aimed at entrepreneurship development, as a means of employment generation, poverty alleviation and rapid economic development. In fact, it seems as if all the strategies applied in the past to fight poverty have proved ineffective. Collective social entrepreneurship (CSE) is useful for the part it plays in the process of capital accumulation, innovation, employment creation and poverty reduction. Literatures suggest that this concept has not been prominent in Nigeria and has not been adequately investigated. The objectives of this research, therefore, are fourfold. Firstly, to critically review the relevant literature relating to the various entrepreneurship strategies and collective social entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on gaining a deeper understanding of what the dichotomies are in order to develop a conceptual framework. Secondly, to study the current impact of the collaboration of collective social entrepreneurs on poverty alleviation in Nigeria. Thirdly, to examine the extent to which CSE strategies can impact on poverty alleviation in Nigeria and, lastly, to determine the nature of the collaborations and strategies employed by collective social entrepreneurs to address poverty in Nigeria and, in turn, to suggest the best poverty reduction collaborative strategy for CSE in Nigeria.
 

This exploratory study is both inductive and deductive in nature and adopts a multi-method research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data. Data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and questionnaires with multiple informants in twenty (20) collective social entrepreneurship firms in Nigeria in order to investigate the impact of CSE on poverty. The study employs a stratified sampling technique. Employers and employees of two subsectors of social entrepreneurship organizations in Nigeria are surveyed using multivariate analysis and descriptive methods (frequencies, percentages, cross tabulations and multiple regression) are used for data analysis. SPSS is used to analyze the quantitative data using a multiple regression analysis to test the relationship between the dependent and independent variables, while NVIVO is employed to analyze the qualitative data. It was noted from findings that the cooperative form of collaboration and multivocality strategy is mostly used by Nigerian CSEs for their poverty alleviation mission.
 

This research contributes to knowledge within the field of collaborative social entrepreneurship by offering a conceptualization of CSEs and empirical study on an investigation into collective social entrepreneurship as a collaborative strategy to reduce poverty in Nigeria. Another contribution of this research is that the nature of this research is the first of its kind to be carried out in Nigeria. Previous studies have been done in more developed economies, but none in Nigeria. Lastly, this research has been able to establish that cooperatives, product development and multivocality will act as more of a proxy for poverty alleviation in Nigeria.