An explorative journey in understanding Social Entrepreneurship
Social enterpriseSocial entrepreneurshipSocial innovationSocial economySocial ownershipManagement of enterprisesFöretagsledningManagementBusiness and Economics
The aim of this thesis is to examine the theoretical developments on social entrepreneurship. Our purpose is to create a better understanding of the phenomenon leading to new insights. We have categorized the knowledge of the concept into social economy, social ownership, social innovation and social missions. Drawing from our theoretical review we have chosen four empirical illustrations, Grameen Bank, Wikipedia, Basta Arbetskooperativ, Jörn Hälsogemenskap, and we have shown how these fit into the general description of the social entrepreneur. With help of our illustrations we show that it is complicated to pin point the core of social entrepreneurship as they each have separate structures, innovations, social missions and operate close to different sectors. We have found that social entrepreneurs take any measures they can to reach their social goals, making formal distinctions and clear boundaries of social enterprises and entrepreneurs problematic. We conclude therefore that social entrepreneurship is a broad concept and creating social enterprises may not be the only activity they perform. We have found that the taxonomy and theoretical contribution on social enterprises is more developed into formal categories and distinctions than is the broader term social entrepreneurship. By looking at the impact of social transformation in reality, we suggest that the true degree of social entrepreneurship can be established.