Analyzing the past and prospecting the future: Review and research agenda on social business and its stakeholders

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the international scientific production on social business and its stakeholders. For that, a bibliometric analysis of the publications indexed in the Web of Science during the last 10 years was performed, with the help of VOSviewer. The main results indicate a representative growth in the last 5 years. There is a predominance of research in North America, in the Social Enterprise Journal and with a predominance of studies on social innovation. The study contributes by presenting a future research agenda focused on the need for empirical studies and on topics such as: social marketing, social impact metrics and indicators, social inclusion, social alliances and social value.

Keywords

• stakeholders
• social business
• bibliometric study
• social entrepreneurship
• social innovation