Values and Opportunities in Social Entrepreneurship, Palgrave, 2010 (original) (raw)

Social entrepreneurship: definitions, drivers and challenges

Huybrechts, B. and Nicholls, A. (2012). 'Social entrepreneurship: definitions, drivers and challenges' in Volkmann, C. K., Tokarski, K. O. and Ernst, K. (Eds.), Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business. An Introduction and Discussion with Case Studies. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler., 2012

Despite widespread acknowledgement that social entrepreneurship and social enterprise remain highly contextual –and, therefore, contestable– notions which can be interpreted in various ways depending on the ideology and the goals of the institutions championing them (Dart 2004; Dey & Steyaert 2010; Nicholls 2010c), there are common features upon which most scholars and commentators can agree. This chapter aims to capture the essence of what social entrepreneurship is and also of what it is not. The chapter is structured as follows. The following section examines the concept of social entrepreneurship and reviews a number of definitions in order to highlight common features. Then, social entrepreneurship is compared with, and differentiated from, related –but distinctive– concepts. After this, the fourth section looks at the origins and drivers of social entrepreneurship in an historical perspective. Finally, this chapter concludes by suggesting a number of challenges for practice, policy and research in this field.

Examining the Significance and Impact of Social Entrepreneurship

International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 2018

Social entrepreneurship has garnered a significant amount of attention over the last decade or two. With so much emphasis on economic and financial return, governments and commercial businesses often neglect or provide insufficient attention towards the social and natural environments. This recent surge in non-profit and social activity from social entrepreneurs is proving to be an effective means of doing business, stirring up much controversy amongst scholars along the way. This paper dives into the hotly debated definition of social entrepreneurship and examines the types of opportunities and challenges associated with new phenomenon. Then, the report concludes with a discussion on the complexity of social entrepreneurship and why future research is needed.

The meanings of social entrepreneurship today

Corporate Governance, 2005

Purpose -Aims to explore the historical development and current usages of the concept of social entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach -The paper first examines the socio-political conditions leading to business repositioning in the traditionally governmental role of catering to the financial needs of civil society. It then reviews several models of social entrepreneurship and the leaders who have emerged as social entrepreneurs within those frameworks. Findings -In discussion the paper questions some of the motives of social entrepreneurs and warns against uncritical acceptance of a blurring of the boundaries between sectors of society.

Social Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice

2011

Frontmatter More information social entrepreneurship Social Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice is about the creative ways in which social entrepreneurs solve pressing and insurmountable social problems. Theories of social change are presented to help demystify the "magic" of making an immense, yet durable and irreversible, social impact. Utilizing case studies drawn from various fields and all over the world, the authors document how social entrepreneurs foster bottom-up change that empowers people and societies. They also review the specific personality traits of social entrepreneurs and introduce the new kind of leadership they represent. This book will be valuable to undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students while remaining accessible to nonacademic readers thanks to its clear language, illustrative case studies, and guidelines on how to become a successful social entrepreneur.

Exploring the terrain of social entrepreneurship: new directions, paths less travelled

A Research Agenda for Social Entrepreneurship

The field of social entrepreneurship (SE) is reaching maturity (Sassmannshausen and Volkmann 2018). However, there remain numerous new directions and paths less travelled for exploring the varied and complex SE terrain. This book draws together sixteen chapter contributions from developing paths of the SE field, to signpost directions ahead. In this chapter we integrate and build on these rich insights, paving the way for a future research agenda to advance the maturing SE field. While some scholars suggest that mainstream entrepreneurship theories are sufficient to explain SE (Dacin et al. 2010), the field has been enriched by the application of different disciplinary approaches including management, public administration, economics, sociology, public health, and development studies. Up to this point methods have been predominately qualitative, arguably reflecting what a decade ago was characterised as a 'pre-paradigmatic' stage of field development (Nicholls 2010a), ranging from macro-studies of policy ecosystems to ethnographies. Economic theories have sought to explain the emergence of SE (Santos 2012) while realist evaluations (Roy et al. 2017) and systematic reviews (Calò et al. 2018; Roy et al. 2014) have been used to understand the impact of SE. Signs are emerging that scholars (and governments) are beginning to amass the datasets necessary for large-scale quantitative analysis (Estrin et al. 2013). While many authors use the terms social innovation, entrepreneurship and enterprise almost interchangeably, other scholars have focused on differentiating between them (de Bruin et al. 2014). Social innovation and SE are closely aligned. Despite this, the primary focus of this book is on SE, since a dual focus would have resulted in only thin coverage of both fields. However, the intricate and integral weaving together of the two fields is neatly captured in the final chapter of the book, Chapter 17 by Ziegler. The temporal perspective, future-orientation in capitalism and social imaginary ideas which are the crux of a chapter nominally focused on social innovation, are equally applicable to SE. As Ziegler aptly highlights, albeit in an endnote (note 1), his focus is on a strand of SE that relates to innovation and for brevity he refers to social innovations and social innovators, although this is not to assert that all social entrepreneurs are innovative. In similar vein, Luke and Chu (2013) show that not all social enterprises are entrepreneurial; although many chapters in this volume do not make such sharp distinctions between social enterprises and SE.

A conceptual overview of What We Know About Social Entrepreneurship

This contribution aims to answer the question what we know about social entrepreneurship by summarizing the current state of knowledge. It first provides a broad description of what social entrepreneurship is. Next, a conceptual overview is given of different perspectives on social entrepreneurship. More specifically, four schools of thought on social entrepreneurship are presented and a description is given of the defining characteristics that distinguish these schools from one another. Subsequently some of the main findings of empirical studies from each of the four schools are summarized and discussed.

Social Entrepreneurship: Definitions and Boundaries

2009

Many concepts, such as social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs, social enterprises, social ventures, social economy, are used to describe a field of research that have only recently come into official or common use. However, those terms are emerging, ill defined and often used without any nuance on their specific meaning, probably because it is not a tidy concept so far. Even if "a consensus over the boundaries of social entrepreneurship remains elusive" (Nichols, 2006, p.7), "the need to draw boundaries so as to delimit scope and clarify whether it really is an independent field of research, and the need to identify the different level of analysis, disciplines and literatures" (Mair and Marti, 2006, p.42) should be pursue. This conceptual paper focuses on definitions and boundaries of social entrepreneurship and on positioning social entrepreneurship compare with related concepts. The paper is an attempt to reduce the fuzziness nature of social entrepreneurship on some specific dimensions and to help academics and government officials in mapping the field for policy purpose.

Opportunities as a Source of Social Entrepreneurship

2015

The main aim of the paper is to investigate how the theory of entrepreneurial opportunities applies to social entrepreneurship. The theory of entrepreneurial opportunities is reviewed, as well as the studies of social entrepreneurship. Basing on literature studies, it was found, that many traits specific for for-profit entrepreneurship could be relevant also to social entrepreneurship. To verify some conclusions resulting from literature studies, 20 social enterprises operating in Malopolska Region in south Poland were researched. The most important findings are: social entrepreneurship is connected with different categories of social needs and opportunities; the role of social entrepreneurs is to connect social needs and business-based solutions, as well as available resources (including public support); enterprising is both the way to generate income and a tool of satisfying social needs, especially in field of work integration; and enterprising social activity is the way spotted ...

Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept

Journal of World Business, 2006

This paper undertakes an analytical, critical and synthetic examination of "social entrepreneurship" in its common use, considering both the "social" and the "entrepreneurship" elements in the concept. On both points there is a range of use, with significant differences marked out by such things as the prominence of social goals and what are thought of as the salient features of entrepreneurship.