Theory and Empirical Research in Social Entrepreneurship

The editors of this book have put together a volume that advances research on and deepens the understanding of social entrepreneurship in a number of ways. First, the volume offers a model of social entrepreneurship that bridges economics and sociology. Second, the approach taken expands our understanding of the broader phenomenon without compromising attention to detail. Third, the book also illustrates the usefulness of action research as a means of simultaneously intervening to create social and economic value and collecting data to test theory. All in all, this book represents an excellent resource for scholars; the literature review alone is worth acquiring it, let alone the other sections on social exchange theory, action research methodology, and philanthropic finance. Because of its practice orientation, this book is also a good resource for policy makers who want fresh thinking and evidence-based approaches to policy.' - Gideon D. Markman, Colorado State University, US'Social entrepreneurship has emerged as an academic field, due to growing interest among students, academics, and policymakers in understanding the antecedents and consequences of these activities. Unfortunately, there has been no comprehensive collection of state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical research on this topic. This timely and important book fills this gap, by effectively synthesizing the burgeoning interdisciplinary literature on social entrepreneurship. Given growing interest in social entrepreneurship, the usefulness of this book to academics, entrepreneurs, and policymakers will not diminish over time.' - Donald S. Siegel, University at Albany, SUNY, US Scholars and policy makers have long recognized entrepreneurship as a powerful engine of economic growth. There is clear evidence, however, that when it comes to social entrepreneurship, policy attention has not been matched by growth in scholarly research. This volume illustrates the type of empirical effort that must take place for the field to advance. The authors review the latest research in the field and then address the many challenges - heterogeneous institutions, geographies and cultures, fast evolving practices, the lack of reliable large datasets, and fragmented theory building that have hampered the development of this research. In many ways, the fundamental questions relating to the rationale and definitions of social entrepreneurship are still very much a work in progress. The main characteristics emerging from the theoretical and empirical discussions in this volume exemplify such complexity. This volume will inspire future researchers to pursue cross-disciplinary theory building, with the aim of building on what we already know and resolving what remains controversial. It will also help researchers think creatively about how their work can inform practice and policy making through the initial design of the research model. This book offers an empirical approach to social entrepreneurship, that researchers, students and policy makers will find invaluable. Contributors: A.-K. Achleitner, N. Auch, H. Aygren, S. Bacq, A.V. Bruno, J.F.G. Bunders, E.D. Carlson, J.E. Clarkin, P. Heister, J.R. Kickul, A. Kroeger, K. Lambrich, S.H. Lee, J. Maas, M. Meyskens, M. Nordqvist, P.H. Phan, A.A. Seferiadis, W. Spiess-Knafl, C. Weber, J.L. Woolley, M.B.M. Zweekhorst