Understanding Social Entrepreneurship and Features of It

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has become a significant field of academic literature for about twenty years. A growing attention to social entrepreneurship has appeared since then. Scholarly interest for it stems from its mission in society that brings affective solutions to the existing social issues, presents distinctive perspectives to the individuals and creates a social value. The purpose of this paper is to provide a view of social entrepreneurship as a process that contributes to social wealth, explores the opportunities for social change and leads to social ventures. Social entrepreneurs have addressed essential human needs that have been ignored and forgotten by the current institutions and businesses. Therefore, this review also assesses the characterizations in social entrepreneurial and conventional entrepreneurial dimensions. It highlights major differences and similarities between these two forms of entrepreneurship with their backgrounds. The content of social entrepreneurship and examples of current successful social ventures conclude this work.