Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship refers to the innovative use and combination of resources to address social problems and needs. Social entrepreneurship and social enterprises constitute an increasingly relevant form of organizing across different contexts, reflected in growing interest from policymakers in Europe and beyond. We provide an overview of definitional debates around social entrepreneurship and focus on institutional change and the pursuit of multiple goals as key characteristics of social entrepreneurship. These characteristics set social entrepreneurship apart from commercial entrepreneurship focused on providing products and services but also create unique challenges. On the one hand, as research on social entrepreneurship and institutional change has shown, social entrepreneurship involves the consideration of the context-specific nature of social problems and social innovations. In addition, scholarship on social entrepreneurship and the pursuit of multiple goals emphasizes a set of resulting demands on organizational governance, including ensuring accountability and acquiring resources while straddling diverse institutional contexts. Interrogating the existing literature in management, organization, and entrepreneurship studies on these aspects, our discussion offers a succinct and generative perspective on social entrepreneurship that helps to advance the study of social innovation.