A Social Entrepreneurial Experiment with ‘Kantha’ - A Shift from Traditions to Trends for Millennials

Among several factors, a couple of crucial factors that determine the success of a social entrepreneurship venture is 1) identifying opportunities and exploiting them to add social value alongside 2) ensuring its sustainability with challenges of limited resources and risks. The complex cultural and social dynamics in India add to the already existing challenges that social ventures face. However, in emerging economies like India, social ventures can act as interventional measures to add social and economic value. This paper, through an exploratory qualitative case study in India, strives to address the issue of a social need and solving for it by adding social and economic value. Furthermore, the study explains the importance of making social ventures self-sustainable through strategic identification of the market needs. In doing so, the study specifically investigates an unorganized indigenous textile sector namely ‘Kantha’ known for its handmade embroidery work. Further, the study discusses how the economic needs of the stakeholders associated with Kantha can be addressed by strategically using their expertise. Additionally, a roadmap was offered that should help social enterprises expand their market by delocalizing Kantha products' utility and creating strategic price points thereby helping in economic sustainability as well.