Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight (original) (raw)

Theorising the emerging field of social entrepreneurship

IJSEI, 2011

Social entrepreneurship, as an emerging academic field, although one still in the very early stage of its development, has been nourished by many of the key concepts developed within the commercial entrepreneurship literature, but this is beginning to change as the social entrepreneurship landscape has become a more fundamental part of the collection of entrepreneurship practices. This paper is concerned with how best to develop a new research paradigm, and considers ways in which this research approach is different from, but complementary to, commercial entrepreneurship research agenda in theory, as well as practice.

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.

Social entrepreneurship A critical review of the concept

The idea of "social entrepreneurship" has struck a responsive chord. It is a phrase well suited to our times. It combines the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination commonly associated with, for instance, the high-tech pioneers of Silicon Valley. The time is certainly ripe for entrepreneurial approaches to social problems. Many governmental and philanthropic efforts have fallen far short of our expectations. Major social sector institutions are often viewed as inefficient, ineffective, and unresponsive. Social entrepreneurs are needed to develop new models for a new century.The language of social entrepreneurship may be new, but the phenomenon is not. We have always had social entrepreneurs, even if we did not call them that. They originally built many of the institutions we now take for granted. However, the new name is important in that it implies a blurring of sector boundaries. In addition to innovative not-for-profit ventures, social entrepreneurship can include social purpose business ventures, such as for-profit community development banks, and hybrid organizations mixing not-for-profit and for-profit elements, such as homeless shelters that start businesses to train and employ their residents. The new language helps to broaden the playing field. Social entrepreneurs look for the most effective methods of serving their social missions. Though the concept of "social entrepreneurship" is gaining popularity, it means different things to different people. This can be confusing. Many associate social entrepreneurship exclusively with not-forprofit organizations starting for-profit or earned-income ventures. Others use it to describe anyone who starts a not-for-profit organization. Social entrepreneurship, as described here, is not a tidy concept. Its untidiness has been argued here to be a reflection of the way that the world is. There are, however, significant landmarks in the complex geography of the concept, and the purpose of this paper has been to advance an understanding of those marks and their importance. The authors submit that the notion as outlined above makes a significant contribution to understanding the complex phenomenon of directing organizational activity toward the achievement of social purposes.

Social Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Framework

The area of Social entrepreneurship has become an important issue of contemporary relevance in academic literature and research. The paper puts forward a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that brings social change or addresses important social needs. Social entrepreneurship is seen as differing form other forms of enterprise where a high priority is given to promote social value and development rather than making financial profits and gains.

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 and Broader Theories: Shedding New Light on the “Bigger Picture.”

Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 2012

This article documents the results of a research workshop bringing together six perspectives on social entrepreneurship. The idea was to challenge existing concepts of the economy, the firm, and entrepreneurship in order to shed new light on social entrepreneurship and on our existing theoretical frameworks. The first two contributions use a macro-perspective and discuss the notion of adaptive societies and the tragedies of disharmonization, respectively. Taking a management perspective, the next two focus on the limits of conventional assumptions in management theory, particularly human capital theory and resource-based view. The final two contributions follow an entrepreneurship perspective highlighting the usefulness of mobilization theory and the business model lens to social entrepreneurship. Despite this diversity, all contributions share the fact that they challenge narrow definitions of the unit of analysis in social entrepreneurship; they illustrate the aspect of social embeddedness, and they argue for an open-but-disciplined diversity of theories in social entrepreneurship research.

Research in social entrepreneurship: past contributions and future opportunities

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2009

Social entrepreneurship has been a topic of academic inquiry for nearly 20 years, yet relatively little scholarly output has appeared in mainstream management and entrepreneurship journals. Our review of this literature reveals that conceptual articles outnumber empirical studies, and empirical efforts often lack formal hypotheses and rigorous methods. These fi ndings suggest that social entrepreneurship research remains in an embryonic state. Future research would benefi t from the incorporation of multivariate methods to complement the case study techniques that have dominated previous efforts. Our review also suggests that social entrepreneurship is informed by common areas of interest to management scholars like entrepreneurship, public/nonprofi t management, and social issues, all of which represent fruitful venues for future research efforts. Therefore, we recommend that scholars embrace key themes in strategic entrepreneurship and frame their research using established theories, such as contingency theory, creation theory, discovery theory, innovation diffusion theory, resource dependence theory, and other theoretical bases relevant to strategic entrepreneurship research.