Pre-paradigmatic Status of Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Systematic Literature Review

Othmar M. Lehner and Juha Kansikas

Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 2013, vol. 4, issue 2, 198-219

Abstract: Social entrepreneurship (SE) research has been presented in the literature as a field of action in a pre-paradigmatic state, a field that lacks an established epistemology. Despite that impediment, several qualitative and quantitative studies have already been undertaken on the sole base of some institutions' worldview and without previous solidification of theory. Consequently, critics and social constructivists have found much ambivalence in these and owing to the resulting mess, even question SE's legitimization as a distinctive item of research. Articles on the topic of SE make use of a variety of frameworks, borrowing from neo-institutional or dialectic theory, bringing with them different research methods and views from other disciplines. Instead of proposing another conceptual approach and yet contributing to the ongoing discussion, the authors enact on a deductive journey by examining and clustering underlying paradigmatic assumptions found in a large-scale sample (>300) of current articles. In comparison to results from the management (entrepreneurship) literature, the study finds statistical evidence to the hypotheses that SE differs in researchers' paradigms, that seminal SE research transcends the foci on either detached structures or individuals, and that research in SE is often led by advocacy worldviews of the researchers themselves.

Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19420676.2013.777360 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jsocen:v:4:y:2013:i:2:p:198-219

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJSE20

DOI: 10.1080/19420676.2013.777360

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Social Entrepreneurship is currently edited by Alex Nicholls

More articles in Journal of Social Entrepreneurship from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().