An Alternative Perspective on Social Opportunity Identification and New Social Venture Ideation

Abstract

One fundamental concept at the heart of entrepreneurship research is that of the opportunity, or in the case of social entrepreneurship, the social opportunity. Although attempts at defining the process of social opportunity identification have been made, the explanatory power of these models was found to be lacking. Recognizing that the study of commercial entrepreneurial opportunities has experienced some of the same ‘growing pains’, I turn to three well-known paradigms in that literature stream that have offered promising insights into the process of opportunity identification or development. Drawing on and integrating these models, I attempt to develop a framework for social opportunity identification, and I further incorporate additional elements that are salient and unique to the study of social opportunities and social venturing. The outcome is a framework that overcomes the dichotomization of social opportunities into ‘creation’ and ‘discovery’ opportunities, and allows for propositions to be developed about the process of new social venture ideation and the types of new social venture ideas that arise from the process. Several propositions are offered which demonstrate the model’s functionality, and possibilities for future work and extensions are also offered.