Social Entrepreneurship: Objectives, Innovation, Implementation and Impact on Entrepreneurship

Anele Mthembu and Brian Barnard
Additional contact information
Anele Mthembu: WITS Business School, The University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Brian Barnard: Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Expert Journal of Business and Management, 2019, vol. 7, issue 1, 147-177

Abstract: The study examines social entrepreneurship from the perspective of: objective and philosophy (why social entrepreneurs are social entrepreneurs), opportunity identification (how social entrepreneurs recognise opportunities), implementation (how social entrepreneurship is implemented), and social entrepreneurship’s contribution to entrepreneurship. The dual objective (some profit, social impact), and strong focus on social impact of the social entrepreneur are highlighted. Although certainly possible, opportunities are encountered and experienced, and thus recognised, rather than actively sought. There are both strong similarities and differences between social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship opportunities. Innovation is as much a component of social entrepreneurship. Also, the proactiveness and innovativeness of social entrepreneurship are important aspects and concepts. Social entrepreneurship can also be radical and disruptive. Implementation of social entrepreneurship entails both the micro- and macro-level. Both the individual implementation of social entrepreneurship, and the overall extent and sophistication of social entrepreneurship opportunities and practice at a broader level, are relevant. Sustainability is a very important consideration for the social entrepreneur. Emphasis has shifted to self-sufficiency and financial sustainability. There are marked similarities between start-up for the social entrepreneur, and the entrepreneur, particularly given that social enterprises are run as businesses just as much. The various contributions of social entrepreneurship to entrepreneurship are highlighted. It is evident that social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship can be compared on several grounds, including the level of risk and the level of difficulty.

JEL-codes: L26 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://business.expertjournals.com/ark:/16759/EJBM_710mthembu147-177.pdf (application/pdf)
http://business.expertjournals.com/23446781-710 (text/html)

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:exp:bsness:v:7:y:2019:i:1:p:147-177

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Expert Journal of Business and Management from Sprint Investify
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alin Opreana ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).