VanHulley Zowerkthet!

Finished

Project Innovation Acceleration Research VanHulley Zowerkthet! aims to let entrepreneurs experiment/research how the regional ecosystem around social entrepreneurs can be set up to increase social earning capacity and strengthen circularity of products and services, help these entrepreneurs accelerate developments and inspire other entrepreneurs and creative professionals.

With the Zowertkhet! program, Vanhulley seeks to offer women distanced from the labor market a network for their careers. Using the Vanhulley case study, the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen examined how to strengthen the ecosystem of social enterprises. Social entrepreneurs are focused on making profit that flows back into their business. They do this by selling a sustainable and social product and/or service. In doing so, they want to take the lead in developing new forms of work. This both for sustainability, particularly through the reuse of raw materials and waste reduction (planet), and by guaranteeing security of existence for their employees (people) who need extra guidance on the labor market. The question is how best to utilize and set up the ecosystem around social entrepreneurs so that the scope can be increased on all three pillars (people, planet, profit). By ecosystem, we mean all actors and factors that affect a business within a defined area.

After a pilot, 2022 Zowerkthet! started in full force. Financed by the PPP allowance of CLICKNL, the Hanzehogeschool followed and evaluated the trajectory for one year. This research was conducted using the Realistic Evaluation method. This method is based on two principles. First, there is a dialogue between the researchers and the professionals where theoretical knowledge and experiences from practice come together. Second, the question of “what works for whom under what circumstances” is central, with evaluation findings always taking into account how the interplay of context and mechanisms leads toa specific outcome.

Results
The project demonstrated how Vanhulley's program contributes to increasing social earning power. Equal relationships with shared goals are the active ingredients for a sustainably designed ecosystem. More information can be found at: https://www.hanze.nl/nl/onderzoeken/centers/marian-van-os-centre-of-expertise-ondernemen/projecten/vanhulley-zowerkthet

This project has been completed. €50,000 was used as a PPP program grant.