Measuring social entrepreneurship and social value with leakage. Definition, analysis and policies for the hospitality industry

The aim is to analyze, define and examine the connections between social entrepreneurship and the generation of social value, considering the concept of leakage as a measure of social value creation and distribution for the hospitality industry. The paper also proposes an exploratory-theoretical framework of policies to promote social entrepreneurship in hospitality, reduce leakage, and increase the generation of social value. Firstly, the paper concentrates on the figure of the social entrepreneur as a promoter of social value creation. Secondly, it analyzes social value creation in hospitality and its measurement. Then, the article studies and presents leakage as an instrument to monitor social value created by social entrepreneurship in hospitality. Finally, the paper proposes a wide framework of policies to enhance social value creation in hospitality, through the reduction of leakage and reinforcement of social entrepreneurship. Leakage is a useful indicator to monitor social value creation in the hospitality industry. The reduction of leakage can gauge the success of policies promoting social entrepreneurship activities which improve social value creation for the host society. The paper proposes proper and idiosyncratic measures of social value creation in hospitality. It also provides a mechanism to measure the effectiveness of the actions designed to generate social entrepreneurship and social value, at a destination and also at firm or hotel level. A complete framework of actions and policies addressed to increase social entrepreneurship and social value is also proposed.