Examining the impact of social entrepreneurship on sustainable community development in South West Nigeria

Abstract

Sustainable community development (SCD) is an innovative paradigm of development that aims to establish communities characterized by economic viability, social inclusivity, and environmental stewardship. This study examined the social entrepreneurship impact on sustainable community development in South West Nigeria using survey Research method. The study gathered data from 507 respondents comprising of Community Development Service (CDS) leaders, beneficiary of social activities and individuals using stratified sampling method. The study adopted multiple linear regression and descriptive statistic in analyzing data. The study’s finding showed that strong correlation exists between social entrepreneurship and sustainable community development (R = 0.842; R-square = 0.709; Adjusted R-square =0.707). The findings further depict that social entrepreneurship is an imperative and key factors in the development of the communities in areas such as improving the wellbeing of the people, increasing their chances of gaining tangible employment and providing educational empowerment to less privilege members of the community. To increase social entrepreneurship influence and support sustainable community development, the study recommends that social enterprises should include successful social entrepreneurship practices into their organizational model should place a special emphasis on their commercial activities and inclusive governance.