Social entrepreneurship: Prospects for the study of market based activity and social change

Social entrepreneurship constitutes a distinct organizing model that uses market activity to overcome social problems. This chapter introduces key elements of this model, including a focus on understanding the causal architecture and institutional embeddedness of social problems, the pursuit of multiple interrelated goals to effect social change, creative governance arrangements, and the contingencies of social entrepreneurship across contexts. We discuss these elements in light of the motives and challenges of social initiatives in the corporate sectors (corporate social responsibility; CSR), in particular how social problems are subjugated to a financial logic, in order to generate a constructive debate on learning potential for the corporate sector from social entrepreneurship. We conclude with an outlook on research gaps and opportunities as the study of social entrepreneurship moves beyond a phase of exploration.