Introduction

Social entrepreneurship has captured the increasing interest and imagination of scholars, practitioners, governments, and the general public since the early 1990s. It has extended the concept of entrepreneurship by including (and in some cases, emphasizing) the ‘social dimension’ of entrepreneurial ventures. This book defines social entrepreneurship as an entrepreneurial process initiated by social entrepreneurs with social goals/missions in pursuit of social value creation; social entrepreneurship outcomes are social enterprises, including social businesses using commercial means and non-profit organizations. This volume is truly international, with contributions from nine different countries by twenty-two different researchers. One aim has been to present papers from different contexts on the economy, politics, and cultural issues, and in national and regional contexts, combining the needs of commercial, social, and human development. For social entrepreneurship, such contexts might comprise sparsely populated areas or urban areas, social entrepreneurship education, social entrepreneurship for healthcare, social entrepreneurship finance, and so on. In all this, we seek to conceptualize the notion of social entrepreneurship, both social and societal. Therefore, this volume develops social entrepreneurship research and takes it in practical directions, synthesizing the numerous streams of social entrepreneurship research and theory for the benefit of educators, libraries, scholars, non-profit researchers, public policymakers, practitioners, students, and any organization or individual interested in staying abreast of advances in this area. It is also an important reference book for faculty and students interested in conducting research or teaching social entrepreneurship.