Social Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study towards Conceptualization

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is defined as a theoretical and a practical paradigm based on a specific context, characteristics and outcomes. Social entrepreneurship—the practice of responding to market failures with transformative, financially sustainable innovations aimed at solving social problems—has emerged as the nexus of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. It is a new breed of entrepreneurship that exhibits characteristics of nonprofits, government, and businesses—including applying to social problem-solving traditional, private-sector entrepreneurship’s focus on innovation, risk-taking, and large-scale transformation. Social entrepreneurship is about applying practical, innovative and sustainable approaches to benefit society, with an emphasis on the marginalized and the socio-economically disadvantaged. Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation across all different fields and sectors, including but not limited to health, education, environment and enterprise development. They pursue their social mission with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to overcome traditional practices. This paper offers a theoretical perspective on the conceptualization, brings out the differences between traditional entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, and highlights the challenges of social entrepreneurship. For the purpose of the study, secondary data were used, of course, keeping in mind the convenience and time limitation. The secondary data were backed up by apt analyses and concluding observations at the end.