An Elusive Concept: The Problem of Defining Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Interest in social entrepreneurship has been growing over the last two decades among both practitioners and academics. However, despite the numerous studies and a large body of literature on social entrepreneurship, the concept remains fuzzy and open to different interpretations. One of the reasons why the concept eludes the grasp is that social entrepreneurship is a multidimensional phenomenon, which can take a great variety of forms. The purpose of this paper is to review the approaches to defining social entrepreneurship, to show the major challenges in drawing the boundaries between social and commercial entrepreneurship as well as between social entrepreneurship and other types of social activities, to identify relevant dimensions for differentiation. Having analyzed different definitions of social entrepreneurship, we have identified eight dimensions of this phenomenon. We have shown that within most of those dimensions the characteristics of social entrepreneurial activities can change along a continuum. The points of contention among researchers of social entrepreneurship are related to the boundaries within which these characteristics can be varied without compromising the social entrepreneurial status of an activity. The proposed dimensions might provide additional insight into the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, help identify different forms of social entrepreneurship and systemize the results of empirical studies. The list of dimensions is not exhaustive, and as empirical evidence accumulates and new types of social entrepreneurship appear, new dimensions can be added.

Keywords

• entrepreneurship
• social entrepreneurship
• social entrepreneur
• social enterprise
• social value
• sustainability