Social Entrepreneurship: Subject Literature Review

Abdou, Ehaab, Amina Fahmy, Diana Greenwald, and Jane Nelson. Social Entrepreneurship in the Middle East: Toward Sustainable Development for the Next Generation. A report produced by the Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings, the Dubai School of Government, and Silatech, 2010.
The report is the first in-depth study of its kind addressing the state of social entrepreneurship and social investment in the Middle East and its potential for the regions 110 million youth. The report contains specific recommendations on how the activities of the regions most promising young social entrepreneurs can be nourished and supported by domestic, regional and international stakeholders.

Alter, Kim. Social Enterprise Typology. Virtue Ventures LLC, Updated November 27, 2007.
This typology breaks down the traditional boundaries between the nonprofit and private sectors and draws definition to this new institutional animal--part business-part social-the social enterprise. In doing so, the typology explores how institutions have combined a mix of social values and goals with commercial business practices and how they have come up with ownership models, income and capitalization strategies, and unique management and service systems designed to maximize social value.

Alvord, S., L. Brown, and C. Letts. Social entrepreneurship and societal transformation: an exploratory study. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 40.3 (2004): 260283. Austin, James E., Herman B. Leonard, Howard H. Stevenson, and Jane C. Wei-Skillern. Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2007.
This unique textbook with cases is designed as a core or supplementary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Social Entrepreneurship and Nonprofit Entrepreneurship in departments of business, management, marketing, and public policy.

Bloom, Paul N. and Brett R. Smith. Identifying the Drivers of Social Entrepreneurial Impact: Theoretical Development and an Exploratory Empirical Test of Scalers. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship 1, No. 1 (March 27, 2010): 126-145. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1579393. Bornstein, David. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition. Updated ed. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2007.
Journalist Bornstein (The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank) profiles nine indomitable champions of social change who developed innovative ways to address needs they saw around them in places as distinct as Bombay, India; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and inner-city Washington, D.C. As these nine grew influential when their ingenious ideas proved ever more widely successful, they came to the attention of Ashoka, an organization that sponsors a fellows program to foster social innovation by finding so-called social entrepreneurs to support. As Bornstein interviewed these and many other Ashoka fellows, he saw patterns in the ways they fought to solve their specifically local problems. To demonstrate the commonality among experiences as diverse as a Hungarian mother striving to provide a fuller life for her handicapped son and a South African nurse starting a home-care system for AIDS patients, he presents useful unifying summaries of "four practices of innovative organizations" and "six qualities of successful social entrepreneurs." Bornstein implies that his subjects are in the tradition of Florence Nightingale and Gandhi; the inspiring portraits that emerge from his in-depth reporting on the environments in which individual programs evolved (whether in politically teeming India or amid the expansive grasslands of Brazil) certainly show these unstoppable entrepreneurs as extraordinarily savvy community development experts. In adding up the vast number of current nongovernmental organizations and their corps of agents of positive change, Bornstein aims to persuade that, "without a doubt, the past twenty years has produced more social entrepreneurs than terrorists."" - From Publishers Weekly.

Certo, S. Trevis, and Toyah Miller. "Social Entrepreneurship: Key issues and concepts." Business Horizons 51 (2008): 267-271. Dees, J. Gregory. The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. Retrieved from http://www.caseatduke.org/documents/dees_sedef.pdf.
A seminal white paper written by CASE Faculty Director Greg Dees in 1998 and revised in 2001, this 5-page definition of social entrepreneurship is available on numerous websites and has been translated into several foreign languages. Developed with support from the Kauffman Foundation and distributed freely at their request.

Dees, J. Gregory, Peter Economy, and Jed Emerson. Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs: Enhancing the Performance of Your Enterprising Nonprofit. New York, NY: Wiley, 2002.
As a follow-up to their book Enterprising Nonprofits, the authors of Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs provide a full set of practical tools for putting the lessons of business entrepreneurship to work in your nonprofit. The book offers hands-on guidance that helps social sector leaders hone their entrepreneurial skills and carry out their social missions more effectively than ever before. This practical and easy-to-use book is filled with examples, exercises, checklists, and action steps that bring the concepts, frameworks, and tools to life. Detailed explanations of all the tools and techniques will help you personalize and apply them to your nonprofit organization making it stronger, healthier, and better able to serve the needs of our communities.

Defourny, Jacques, and Marthe Nyssens. "Conceptions of Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship in Europe and the United States: Convergences and Divergences." Journal of Social Entrepreneurship 1, No. 1 (2010): 32-53.
The concepts of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are making amazing breakthroughs in EU countries and the United States. Until recently, the debates on both sides of the Atlantic have taken place in parallel trajectories with few connections among them. In the first part of the paper, we describe the European and US historical landscapes in which those concepts took root. In the second part, we analyse how the various conceptualizations have evolved. This analysis paves the way for the third part, in which we highlight the conceptual convergences and divergences among regions as well as within the US and European landscapes.

Elkington, John, and Pamela Hartigan. The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World. New York: Harvard Business School Press, 2008.
In this what's-next business manifesto, "social entrepreneurs" Elkington and Hartigan run with a quote from playwright George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." Using that thesis, the authors argue that the best place to find tomorrow's revolutionary business models is on the unpredictable fringes of the mainstream market. There, they find cases like Jack Sim and his Singapore-based World Toilet Organization, who have ingeniously improved living conditions worldwide (and goosed profits) by, among other schemes, convincing governments and corporations to compete for cleanest public restroom honors. The heart of the book are the case studies, of both for-profit and nonprofit social organizations (many of them in Asian and Indian countries), which are mined for ideas and theories

regarding their impact on global markets and local communities. Elkington (The Chrysalis Economy) and Hartigan also give nods to such well-known enterprises as Whole Foods, One Laptop Per Child, and Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8. Written with a business-magazine style, Elkington and Hartigan's eye-opening work and noble intentbridging business acumen and social awareness-make a convincing case for unconventional entrepreneurship. - From Publishers Weekly

Harding, Rebecca. Social Entrepreneurship Monitor. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor UK. United Kingdom, 2006.
This report focuses on the social entrepreneurs who may grow the social enterprises of the future. It is the second Social Entrepreneurship Monitor report published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) UK1 project. Like the first report, it uses data from a survey of 27,296 18-64 year olds randomly stratified by UK region. It measures levels and types of early stage community or socially oriented entrepreneurial activity in the UK, with a view to informing policy about this important feeder group to the overall social enterprise agenda.

Hoogendoorn, Brigette, Enrico Pennings, and Roy Thurik. "What Do We Know About Social Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Empirical Research." Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM) Report Series entitled, "Research in Management," January 2010.
Despite the growing attention to social entrepreneurship as a scholarly field of research, it is still in a stage of infancy. Research in the past two decades has been primarily dedicated to establishing a conceptual foundation, which has resulted in a considerable stream of conceptual papers. Empirical articles have gradually appeared since the turn of the century. Although they are still outnumbered by conceptual articles, empirical articles are of considerable significance for the evolution of social entrepreneurship as a field of scientific inquiry. The purpose of this paper is to gauge the current state of empirical research in the field by reviewing 31 empirical research studies on social entrepreneurship, classifying them along four dimensions and summarizing research findings for each of these dimensions. To serve this purpose in a meaningful fashion requires discriminating between different perspectives on social entrepreneurship. Hence, four different schools of thought are presented, and the articles in our sample are classified accordingly

Kaufman, R., A. Avgar, and J. Mirsky. Social Entrepreneurship in Crisis Situations. The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations 7 (2007): 227-232.

Leadbeater, Charles. The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur (Demos Papers). London: Demos, 1997. Light, Paul Charles. The Search for Social Entrepreneurship. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2008.
Research on social entrepreneurship is finally catching up to its rapidly growing potential. In The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, Paul Light explores this surge of interest to establish the state of knowledge on this growing phenomenon and suggest directions for future research. Light begins by outlining the debate on how to define social entrepreneurship, a concept often cited and lauded but not necessarily understood. A very elemental definition would note that it involves individuals, groups, networks, or organizations seeking sustainable change via new ideas on how governments, nonprofits, and businesses can address significant social problems. That leaves plenty of gaps, however, and without adequate agreement on what the term means, we cannot measure it effectively. The unsatisfying results are apple-to-orange comparisons that make replication and further research difficult. The subsequent section examines the four main components of social entrepreneurship: ideas, opportunities, organizations, and the entrepreneurs themselves. The copious information available about each has yet to be mined for lessons on making social entrepreneurship a success. The third section draws on Light s original survey research on 131 high-performing nonprofits, exploring how they differ across the four key components. The fourth and final section offers recommendations for future action and research in this burgeoning field.

Mair , Johanna and Ignasi Marti. "Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight." Journal of World Business 41 (2006): 3644.
Social entrepreneurship, as a practice and a field for scholarly investigation, provides a unique opportunity to challenge, question, and rethink concepts and assumptions from different fields of management and business research. This article puts forward a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that catalyzes social change and addresses important social needs in a way that is not dominated by direct financial benefits for the entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship is seen as differing from other forms of entrepreneurship in the relatively higher priority given to promoting social value and development versus capturing economic value. To stimulate future research the authors introduce the concept of embeddedness as a nexus between theoretical perspectives for the study of social entrepreneurship.

Martin, Roger L., and Sally Osberg. "Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition." Stanford Social Innovation Review Spring (2007): 28-39.

Social entrepreneurship is attracting growing amounts of talent, money, and attention. But along with its increasing popularity has come less certainty about what exactly a social entrepreneur is and does. As a result, all sorts of activities are now being called social entrepreneurship. Some say that a more inclusive term is all for the good, but the authors argue that its time for a more rigorous definition.

Mulgan, Geoff. Social Innovation: What It Is, Why It Matters and How It Can Be Accelerated. A Working Paper of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. The Basingstoke Press: 2007. Neck, Heidi, Candida Brush, and Elaine Allen. The Landscape of Social Entrepreneurship. Business Horizons 52 (2009): 13-19.
Outlines a typology of social entrepreneurship in terms of its impact and mission in social and economic contexts.

Nicholls, Alex. Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2006.
This study examines "Social Entrepreneurship," a term that has come to be applied to the activities of grass-roots activists, NGOs, policy makers, international institutions, and corporations, amongst others, which address a range of social issues in innovative and creative ways. Chapter titles: Social business entrepreneurs are the solution / Muhammad Yunus -- The citizen sector transformed / Bill Drayton -- For what it is worth : social value and the future of social entrepreneurship / Rowena Young -- Cultivating the other invisible hand of social entrepreneurship : comparative advantage, public policy, and future research priorities / Geoff Mulgan -- Social entrepreneurship : the structuration of a field / Alex Nicholls and Albert Hyunbae Cho -- Social entrepreneurship : agency in a globalizing world / Paola Greneir -- Rhetoric, reality, and research : building a solid foundation for the practice of social entrepreneurship / Beth Battle Anderson and J. Gregory Dees -- Social entrepreneurship : it is for corporations, too / James E. Austin ... [et al.] -- Social entrepreneurship : exploring a cultural mode amidst others in the Church of England / Doug Foster -- Social enterprise models and their mission and money relationships / Sutia Kim Alter -- The socially entrepreneurial city / Charles Leadbeater -- Helping people is difficult : growth and performance in social enterprises working for international relief and development / Alex Jacobs -- The social entrepreneurship collaboratory (SE Lab) : a university incubator for a rising generation of social entrepreneurs / Gordon M. Bloom -- Wayfinding without a compass : philanthropys changing landscape and its implications for social entrepreneurs / Sally Osberg -- Delivering on the promise of social entrepreneurship : challenges faced in launching a global social capital market / Pamela Hartigan -- Social entrepreneurship : the promise and the perils / Jerr Boschee -- Moving ahead together : implications of a blended value framework for the future of social entrepreneurship / Jed Emerson.

Peredo, Ana Maria, and Murdith McLean. "Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept." Journal of World Business 41 (2006): 56-65.
This paper undertakes an analytical, critical and synthetic examination of social entrepreneurship in its common use, considering both the social and the entrepreneurship elements in the concept. On both points, there is a range of use with significant differences marked by such things as the prominence of social goals and what are thought of as the salient features of entrepreneurship. The paper concludes with the proposal of a suitably flexible explication of the concept: social entrepreneurship is exercised where some person or persons (1) aim either exclusively or in some prominent way to create social value of some kind, and pursue that goal through some combination of (2) recognizing and exploiting opportunities to create this value, (3) employing innovation, (4) tolerating risk and (5) declining to accept limitations in available resources.

Phills, Jr., James A., Kriss Deiglmeier, and Dale T. Miller. "Rediscovering Social Innovation." Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall (2008).
Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise have become popular rallying points for those trying to improve the world. These two notions are positive ones, but neither is adequate when it comes to understanding and creating social change in all of its manifestations. The authors make the case that social innovation is a better vehicle for doing this. They also explain why most of todays innovative social solutions cut across the traditional boundaries separating nonprofits, government, and for-profit businesses.

Replacing the State? The Case for Third Sector Public Service Delivery. Association for Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO), 2003.
A book of four essays and case studies arguing for plurality in the provision of public services and much greater involvement of the voluntary sector. Contributors include Paul Ormerod, John Kay, Will Hutton, Stephen Bevan, Julia Unwin and Ed Mayo.

Research on Social Entrepreneurship: Understanding and Contributing to an Emerging Field. Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Occasional Paper Series. Available through ARNOVA at http://www.arnova.org/?section=publications&subsection=occasional. Seelos, Christian, and Johanna Mair. "Social entrepreneurship: Creating new business models to serve the poor." Business Horizons 48 (2005): 241-246.

The term social entrepreneurship (SE) is used to refer to the rapidly growing number of organizations that have created models for efficiently catering to basic human needs that existing markets and institutions have failed to satisfy. Social entrepreneurship combines the resourcefulness of traditional entrepreneurship with a mission to change society. One social entrepreneur, Ibrahim Abouleish, recently received the Alternative Nobel Prize for his Sekem initiative; in 2004, e-Bay founder Jeff Skoll donated 4.4 million pounds to set up a social entrepreneurship research center; and many social entrepreneurs have mingled with their business counterparts at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Social entrepreneurship offers insights that may stimulate ideas for more socially acceptable and sustainable business strategies and organizational forms. Because it contributes directly to internationally recognized sustainable development (SD) goals, social entrepreneurship may also encourage established corporations to take on greater social responsibility.

Social Entrepreneurship: A Skills Approach. Gunn, Robert and Christopher Durkin., ed.s. Great Britain: Policy Press, 2010. Weerawardena, Jay, and Gillian Sullivan Mort. "Investigating social entrepreneurship: A multidimensional model." Journal of World Business 41, no. 1 (2006): 21-35.
Social entrepreneurship is an emerging area of investigation within the entrepreneurship and not-for-profit marketing literatures. A review of the literature emerging from a number of domains reveals that it is fragmented and that there is no coherent theoretical framework. In particular, current conceptualizations of social entrepreneurship fail to adequately consider the unique characteristics of social entrepreneurs and the context within which they must operate. Using grounded theory method and drawing on nine indepth case studies of social entrepreneurial not-for-profit organizations, this paper addresses this research gap and develops a bounded multidimensional model of social entrepreneurship. Implications for social entrepreneurship theory, management practice, and policy directions are discussed.

Yujuico, Emmanuel. Connecting the Dots in Social Entrepreneurship through the Capabilities Approach. Socio-Economic Review Vol. 6, Issue 3, (July 2008): 493-513. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1157727. Zahra, Shaker A., Eric Gedajlovic, Donald O. Newbaum, and Joel M. Shulman. "A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges." Journal of Business Venturing 24 (2009): 519-532.
Social entrepreneurship has been the subject of considerable interest in the literature. This stems from its importance in addressing social problems and enriching communities and societies. In this article, we define social entrepreneurship; discuss its contributions to creating social wealth; offer a typology of entrepreneurs' search processes that lead to

the discovery of opportunities for creating social ventures; and articulate the major ethical concerns social entrepreneurs might encounter. We conclude by outlining implications for entrepreneurs and advancing an agenda for future research, especially the ethics of social entrepreneurship.

Literature review prepared by : Scott J. Jackson Intended for use by the Congressional Research Service. Abstracts and summaries drawn from article abstracts, publisher reviews, and related online sources.