Social Cause Venturing as a Distinct Domain

Abstract

Venturing activities focused on social causes has been called ‘social entrepreneurship’. This paper argues that the social entrepreneurship literature largely focuses on the similarities and overlooks the fundamental differences between social and commercial entrepreneurship, making the former only an extension of the latter. The paper suggests that the former is better differentiated by a designation of ‘social cause venturing’ as it elaborates a point of departure from the present literature. Through a detailed analysis of a social venturing case, the paper explores some of the tensions between social cause venturing and traditional entrepreneurship. It proposes ‘sponsor motive’ as the major discriminating construct and highlights other differences, such as performance assessment, between the two fields. The paper argues for social cause venturing as a distinct domain that is fundamentally different from entrepreneurship as we know it, and recommends a course correction of the theory building effort.