The Past, Present, and Future of Social Entrepreneurship in Indonesia: A Strategy to Move the Ecosystem Forward

Indonesia saw the exponential growth of social entrepreneurship in the last decade, where we see an increased awareness on social entrepreneurship and its impact in the society throughout the country. A recent report by the British Council has identified that there are more than 300,000 social enterprises in Indonesia. Following the increased awareness on social entrepreneurship, research and education on this topic have also been growing exponentially in the last few years. However, the social entrepreneurship sector faces many challenges due to uncertainties that surround the new and emerging sectors. The political and legal uncertainties are one of the many challenges that social enterprises face in Indonesia. All of these have raised the important question in regard to how social enterprises in Indonesia can cope with these emerging uncertainties and move forward with an ecosystem. With this book chapter, we seek to provide an overview of the state of social entrepreneurship in Indonesia categorised into three different periods and the ways forward for the government, academia, as well as the private sector in helping the preferrable future to unfold.