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Social innovation as an entrepreneurial opportunity: the context of social
entrepreneurship
The very concept of sustainable development or sustainability emphasizes the capacity of an
object to sustain itself. Indeed, in order to make social innovations viable and long-existing,
they have to be self-sustaining. In this respect, the concept of entrepreneurship and
entrepreneurial opportunity plays a huge role since the entrepreneurial side of the
innovation makes it workable, viable and in many cases, profitable. Despite that many
definitions of social innovations do not include the notion of profitability by emphasizing the
social benefit aspect; there still remains the need to make the innovation viable, selfsustained
or driven by market conditions.
Entrepreneurship has been a flagship subject of business studies for many years since it
focuses on identifying new opportunities for creating value for users, and commercially
developing those opportunities to establish a profitable business (Shane and Venkataraman,
2000). The word “entrepreneur” derives from French language and it refers to taking the
initiative to bridge. The opportunities identified by entrepreneurs can be for new products
or services, new markets, new production processes, new raw materials, or new ways of
organizing existing technologies (Schumpeter, 1934). Therefore, the very concept of
entrepreneurship is highly tied to social innovation discourse. According to Schumpeter
(1934), entrepreneur is the innovator who implements change within markets through the
carrying out of new combinations. These can take several forms:
the introduction of a new good or quality thereof,
the introduction of a new method of production,
the opening of a new market,
the conquest of a new source of supply of new materials or parts, and
the carrying out of the new organisation of any industry.
Indeed, Schumpeter (1934) stressed that entrepreneurs can be driven by non-economic
motives such as a desire for creativity or power (in this case, social welfare), economic
theories of entrepreneurship generally emphasize the role of profit as one of the major
underlying goals of entrepreneurs and investors in developing a new venture opportunity.
However, entrepreneurial activity can be found in many areas, including in the social sector
(Thompson, 2008). Drucker (1985) argued that despite that entrepreneurship is by no
means limited to the economic sphere, although the term originated there, it pertains to all
activities of human beings other than those one might term “existential” rather than
“social.”
Social entrepreneurship refers to a broader term generally referring to any venture that
creates social or environmental benefits; thus this concept constitutes the discourses of
sustainable development and social innovation as well. Alford et al. (2004) stated that social
entrepreneurship creates innovative solutions to immediate social problems and mobilizes
the ideas, capacities, resources and social arrangements required for social transformations.
Dees (1998) indicated that social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social
sector, by:
Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),
Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,
Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,
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