Overcoming inertia: the social question in social entrepreneurship

Abstract

The literature on social entrepreneurship continues to grow. This research is novel and vibrant, yet erratic and fragmented. In this chapter I first organize the burgeoning social-entrepreneurship literature into two streams: one conceptual stream concerned with defining social entrepreneurship; a second management- oriented stream concerned with the establishment and development of social ventures. Within the management-oriented research stream, three units of analysis can be further distinguished: the invidivudal, the organizational, and the inter- organizational levels. This organization of the literature highlights the need to develop a social approach to the study of the methods, strategies and notions used by social entrepreneurial initiatives in their work towards social change. Next, the essay takes a first step in this direction, suggesting a matrix for analysing the congruency between the social change aimed at by social entrepreneurial initiatives and the methods they use to ignite it. (Less)