Organizational Entrepreneurial Orientation

Abstract

This chapter addresses “Organizational Entrepreneurial Orientation: Implications for Social Impact and Social Enterprise.” All too often social entrepreneurship is focused on celebrating individual entrepreneurs while excluding organizations with impactful change-making missions. Rather than being developed fully by a single entrepreneurial “hero,” impactful solutions are likely developed through social interactions aided by organizational frameworks. This research raises and explores several important questions. How is a strategic orientation toward entrepreneurial activity, or entrepreneurial orientation (EO), conceptualized in social enterprises? What are the antecedents and outcomes of EO within social enterprises? And how do we measure EO within social enterprises? Addressing these questions is important to understanding organizational entrepreneurship within the context of social enterprises pursuing prominent social missions. In sum, this chapter examines the critical manifestation of EO within social enterprise.