Designing and Explaining a Social Entrepreneurship Paradigm Model with an Approach to Empowerment of Female Household Heads (Case Study: The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation of Fars Province)

It is generally accepted that women and girls are more vulnerable to the exploitation, poverty, violence and malnutrition than men and have less opportunity for education and training. Social entrepreneurship gives women the opportunity to control their own destinies. It allows women enjoying greater independency, empowerment and social participation than the traditional and state-owned investments. The present study aimed to provide a social entrepreneurship model with an approach to empowerment of female household heads in the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation and identification and explanation of effective factors in the formation of this process and its consequences through applying a qualitative research method and the Grounded Theory (GT) strategy. In this regard, interviews were conducted with eighteen university experts and family workers from The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation in Fars province as the statistical sample using a semi-structured theoretical and purposive method; and interview texts were analyzed at three stages namely the open, axial and selective coding. According to obtained results, empowering policies create the social entrepreneurship the phenomenon orientation in the interaction with other factors. Relationships of these factors are shown in the final model of research. Capacity-building, physical-psychological boosting and supportive laws have significant effects on the creation of empowering policies. This attitude ultimately becomes a basis for the emergence of social entrepreneurship phenomenon.