The past decade has witnessed a surge of research interest in social entrepreneurship (SE). This has resulted in important insights concerning the role of SE in fostering inclusive growth and ...institutional change. However, the rapid growth of SE research, the emerging nature of the literature, and the fact that SE builds on different disciplines and fields (e.g., entrepreneurship, sociology, economics, ethics) have led to a rather fragmented literature without dominant frameworks. This situation risks leading to a duplication of efforts and hampers cumulative knowledge growth. Drawing on 395 peer-reviewed articles on SE, we (1) identify gaps in SE research on three levels of analysis (i.e., individual, organizational, institutional), (2) proffer an integrative multistage, multilevel framework, and (3) discuss promising avenues for further research on SE.
PurposeThis study aims to reach academic consensus on key factors and boundaries used in defining the concepts of “social entrepreneurship” (SEsh), “social entrepreneur” (SE), and “social enterprise” ...(SEV). This study also explores the complex relationships among social/business enterprises, definitional categories and factors, missions, and impacts on effectiveness of practices and organizing for venture success.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis is conducted on articles published from 1998 to 2016 in peer-reviewed academic journals in the fields of management and organization. Furthermore, 80 articles are obtained and analyzed in terms of factors and frequently used terms for unified definitions and their intertwined linkages.FindingsThe unifying factors for the definitions of SEsh, SE, and SEV include primary mission and processes and resources. Strong linkages are observed between SEsh and actors, SE and characteristics, and SEV and organizational form. Results indicate that definitional categories and factors share numerous joint terms that can be used to propose unified definitions. This study identifies the effective interactions of variables among social mission, capabilities to manage resources and processes, entrepreneurial characteristics of actors, and forms of ventures in a process that provides potential for organizational sustainability and impact maximization.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to research by identifying clear and agreed-upon factors and traits as boundaries to propose definitions that can advance the legitimacy of social entrepreneurship as an academic field worthy of future exploration.Practical implicationsThe findings emphasize social mission that achieves public benefits while preventing mission drift. Economic value and choice of organizational form can advance the fulfillment of objectives and governance practices. This study also presents the key influencing factors at various stages of an entrepreneurial process to determine how these concepts interact to increase the likelihood of organizational emergence and survival.Originality/valueThis work is the first to systematically review management and organizational literature on the key factors and terms that constitute the distinct definitions of SEsh, SE, and SEV and help clarify their complex relations in an entrepreneurial process.
In a world filled with poverty, environmental degradation, and moral injustice, social enterprises offer a ray of hope. These organizations seek to achieve social missions through business ventures. ...Yet social missions and business ventures are associated with divergent goals, values, norms, and identities. Attending to them simultaneously creates tensions, competing demands, and ethical dilemmas. Effectively understanding social enterprises therefore depends on insight into the nature and management of these tensions. While existing research recognizes tensions between social missions and business ventures, we lack any systematic analysis. Our paper addresses this issue. We first categorize the types of tensions that arise between social missions and business ventures, emphasizing their prevalence and variety. We then explore how four different organizational theories offer insight into these tensions, and we develop an agenda for future research. We end by arguing that a focus on social-business tensions not only expands insight into social enterprises, but also provides an opportunity for research on social enterprises to inform traditional organizational theories. Taken together, our analysis of tensions in social enterprises integrates and seeks to energize research on this expanding phenomenon.
•The various roles of social entrepreneurs within rural destination development are explored.•A qualitative, cross-case analysis was conducted among three nations: Ireland, South Africa, and ...USA.•Three distinct roles emerged: opportunist, catalyst, and network architect.
This paper seeks to explore how social entrepreneurs are relevant to our consideration of rural destination development. While many peripheral rural areas face significant challenges in terms of sustaining communities and attracting tourists it is often social entrepreneurs, as much as traditional entrepreneurs, who are involved in developing new ideas, new products and activities, and envisioning a future for the area. This study, which is based on case studies resulting from nine semi-structured interviews carried out in rural areas in Ireland, South Africa and USA, identifies key roles that social entrepreneurs play in terms of rural destination development; namely that of an opportunist, catalyst, and network architect, and this is used to build a theoretical framework within which SEs can be analyzed.
Scholars have begun to realize the importance of entrepreneurial political skills to new ventures. Namely, social entrepreneurship is a context, in which entrepreneurs expend great efforts in ...networking politically to integrate diverse resources and share interests (e.g., ecology wellness) for sustainability. In this paper, we integrate the social exchange theory and the resource-based view to discuss how social entrepreneurs' political skills enhance new ventures' performance through their social network (size/diversity and structural holes), and discuss how psychological capital in entrepreneurial contexts can influence new venture performance by political skills' functionality. By connecting significant entrepreneurship research constructs at different levels, this article not only enriches our knowledge about the ways in which social entrepreneurs' political skills and psychological capital affect the performance of ventures, but also offers new ventures some guidance on how to use political skill to improve their social networking and performance. Implications for social entrepreneurial sustainability are discussed.
Social entrepreneurship is a topic studied in depth in recent years, especially due to the continuous emergence of organizations categorized within this concept during the economic crisis. However, ...very little research has been done on the team associated to the social entrepreneur. By looking at a case of social enterprise in the gastronomy sector in Spain, this paper makes an additional contribution to social entrepreneurship theory adding the role of the team that of the social entrepreneur. The case demonstrates that, in addition to the key role of the social entrepreneur in detecting the opportunity, the subsequent development of the business also depends on the rest of the team. Likewise, other types of personal characteristics and experiences of the team are highlighted that, for the achievement of the social objective of the company, may be even more important than their functional backgrounds. Finally, the role of external social collaborators (mainly chefs) stands out, which help to make up for certain deficiencies for the correct development of the social venture. This article provides a basis for further qualitative and quantitative research in order to delve into the role of social enterprise teams, in this case those related to the world of gastronomy.
Social entrepreneurship (SE) increasingly contributes to diversity in entrepreneurship. The different approaches to SE suggest a variety of antecedents which drive individuals' intention to become ...social entrepreneurs. While this variety of antecedents is insightful, it also creates a need for systemisation and prioritization. We address this need by introducing an integrative, multi-level framework for person-based antecedents of SE-intention. Based on this multi-level framework the antecedents are grouped on three theoretical levels which refer to an individual's (1) personality, (2) cognition, and (3) entrepreneurial exposition. When testing our framework with 499 South African University students we find support for the multi-level framework and its notion that antecedents from the diverse levels complement each other. Therefore, this study provides a structure for person-based antecedents of SE-intention and additionally points to future research which may extend the proposed framework.
Though discussion of culture is central in the literature on gender in entrepreneurial settings, prior studies have paid scant attention to the specific impact of cultural norms. We propose that the ...impact of gender composition in new venture teams (NVTs) on commercialization of social ventures is contingent on the strength of cultural norms of a nation. Our view of gender as a culture-contingent resource reveals ordering mechanisms that distinguish gender effects in culturally tight versus culturally loose societies with respect to commercialization intent and legal form. The empirical analysis of an international sample of 6657 social ventures from 30 countries supports the study hypotheses. The findings show that gender differences in new ventures are more significant in tight societies compared to loose societies.
•Gender composition of social venture teams is a key determinant of commercialization of social ventures.•Increasing levels of female presence on the founding team reduces the likelihood of adopting commercial intent/legal form.•Cultural tightness moderates the effect of founding team gender composition on the commercialization of social ventures.•As the tightness increases, mixed-gender teams are more likely to adopt commercial intent/legal form.•As the tightness increases, all-male teams are less likely to adopt commercial intent/legal form.
Social entrepreneurship has recently received greater recognition from the public sector, as well as from scholars. However, the lack of a unifying paradigm in the field has lead to a proliferation ...of definitions. Moreover, several approaches of the phenomenon, as well as different schools of thought, have emerged in different regions of the world. At first glance, because of different conceptions of capitalism and of the government's role, there seems to be a difference between the American and the European conceptions of social entrepreneurship. The objective of this paper is to clarify the concepts of 'social entrepreneurship', 'social entrepreneur' and 'social entrepreneurship organization' and to examine whether there is a transatlantic divide in the way these are conceived and defined. After having justified the need for a definition, we present the different geographical perspectives. North American and European literatures on social entrepreneurship are critically analysed by means of Gartner's four differentiating aspects: the individual, the process, the organization and the environment. We show that there is no clear-cut transatlantic divide, but that, even within the US, different conceptions coexist. We propose definitions for the main concepts associated with social entrepreneurship and, finally, discuss implications for future research.
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