Complexity, Cultural Evolution, and the Discovery and Creation of (Social) Entrepreneurial Opportunities: Exploring a Memetic Approach

Michael P. Schlaile () and Marcus Ehrenberger ()
Additional contact information
Michael P. Schlaile: University of Hohenheim
Marcus Ehrenberger: Hochschule Konstanz University of Applied Sciences (HTWG)

A chapter in Complexity in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology Research, 2016, pp 63-92 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The central contribution of this chapter consists in exploring the implications of a memetic perspective for dealing with complexity in (social) entrepreneurship. The line of argument can basically be divided into four aspects. First, it is argued that memes, especially their mental representations, can be conceptualized in the context of (cultural) schemata that have an impact on the perception and discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. Second, a memetic view of creativity also suggests that opportunity creation strongly depends on memes. Third, viewing social entrepreneurship as a meme(plex) allows us to compare it with related concepts. Moreover, we argue that by focusing on the properties of social entrepreneurial opportunities we can get to the core of the social entrepreneurial process. In this chapter, we are focusing on social entrepreneurial opportunities that can be understood as the intersection of the set of ‘opportunities to solve a societal problem’ and the set of ‘profitable business opportunities’. This conception represents the vantage point for the fourth part of this contribution, where we argue that, in order to facilitate the propagation of the social entrepreneurship meme within (for-profit) organizations, a systematic analysis of the firm’s social network as well as its memeplex is advisable.

Keywords: Memes; Schemata; (Social) Entrepreneurial opportunities; Social entrepreneurship; Social innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:spr:fgfchp:978-3-319-27108-8_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319271088

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-27108-8_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in FGF Studies in Small Business and Entrepreneurship from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().