RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

200 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
During the past few years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of publications
under the topic of social entrepreneurship, revealing the importance of social entrepreneurs,
perceived by authors and journals from several fields of study (Tiago, Faria, Couto & Tiago,
2015). Studies suggest definitions, theories and also a set of features that characterize social
entrepreneurs (e.g. Certo & Miller, 2008; Zahra, Gedajlovic, Neubaum & Shulman, 2009).
Authors agree that a social entrepreneur has the mission to improve the world supporting the
resolution of social problems and satisfying basic human needs, as opposed to a profit-seeking
motivation of commercial entrepreneurs (Bikse et al. 2015; Certo & Miller, 2008; Light,
2005; Sekliuckiene & Kisielius, 2015). These individuals are even described as “new engines
of reform” (Gergen, 2006), which involves the recognition, evaluation and exploitation of
opportunities (Austin, Wei-Skillern & Stevenson, 2006).
Nonetheless, whether theoretical conceptualization received significant attention (Certo
& Miller, 2008; Zahra et al., 2009), empirical perspectives deserved less emphasis. Although
there is a growing number of initiatives promoting social entrepreneurship (Sekliuckiene &
Kisielius, 2015), the key actors of the sector do not seem to have the opportunity to clearly
state what are their concerns, which are their needs or even what they might think would make
them successful social entrepreneurs.
Aiming at bridging practice and theory, the main objective of the current study is to explore
whether the visions of stakeholders from the social economy do encounter theoretical studies.
Considering the visions of practitioners, project evaluators, mentors and other stakeholders
of the social economy, the research puts forward an attempt to understand the match
between literature and reality.
Social entrepreneurship & social entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship has gained increasing importance due to its strong relationship and role
for the development of regions and communities’. According to the Schumpeter examination,
entrepreneurship is a key process through which the economy, as a whole, advances
(Schumpeter, 1934).
The practice of entrepreneurship is strongly influenced and shaped by the context in which
it stems, resulting from the combination of a number of factors. The entrepreneurship ecosystem,
is a combination of conditions such as: financing, government policies and programs,
taxes and bureaucracy, school-level entrepreneurship education and training, post-school
entrepreneurship education and training, R&D transfer, access to commercial and professional
infrastructure, internal market dynamics and burdens, access to physical and services infrastructure,
and social and cultural norms (Kelley, Singer & Herrington, 2015).
The business management literature characterizes entrepreneurship as an exceptional set
of activities carried out by individuals with distinctive characteristics, with the ultimate goal
of maximizing financial profit (Abu-Saifan, 2012). Several characteristics of the entrepreneur
have been identified, such as innovator and creator (Schumpeter, 1934) locator, and implementer
of ideas through leadership (Baumol, 1968). Over time, entrepreneurship has been
studied by several researchers, and its definition has followed the trends of the new economies.
As a sub-discipline of entrepreneurship, arises social entrepreneurship (Certo & Miller,
2008), and its concept emerged within the Social Economy. As in entrepreneurship, over time,
social entrepreneurship has received contributions from education and research, with several