SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AVENUES FOR THE FIELD DEVELOPMENT THROUGH RESEARCH PARADIGM INTERSECTION DISCUSSION

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify and provide key arguments for employing integrative approach in the choice of research paradigm for studying social entrepreneurship phenomenon. The fact that social entrepreneurship as a field of research is at its preliminary stage, serves as argument and gives freedom in the discussion of the choice of employing a research paradigm. The author does so through identifying commonalities and converging points that serve as argument for employing different research paradigms in social entrepreneurship as a subfield of entrepreneurship research. In the first part of the paper the reader is introduced into the concept of social entrepreneurship and introduce the development of this field. Subsequently, societal dimension of the social entrepreneurship phenomenon is highlighted, with emphasis on the importance of intangible elements of the process, cauldron of social interactions, contextuality and processual nature of social entrepreneurship phenomenon. This is followed by the overview the key research paradigms and discussion on a potential of all four approaches in pushing the boundaries of the subfield further.