RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Social entrepreneur: Does literature match reality? 201
definitions emerging from diverse authors (Zahra et al., 2009). Social entrepreneurship has
been subject of interest by governments, practitioners, academics and by the society in general
(Sekliuckiene & Kisielius, 2015). Notwithstanding, over the past few years and after the
financial crisis in 2008, this issue has acquired greater relevance (Tiago et al., 2015).
According to Defourny and Nyssen (2010), the concept of Social Enterprise appeared in
1990 associated with the cooperative movement and linked to the third sector. One year later,
the Italian parliament was the first to approve a law that recognized the legal form of social
cooperatives. Also in the early 90’s, the United States gave great visibility to the concept.
Although around the years of 2004-2005 some connections on the theme of social entrepreneurship
across Europe and the United States have started being developed (Defourny & Nyssens,
2010), there are still some differences on this issue between the two sides of the Atlantic.
Parente et al. (2014) distinguish between three theoretical approaches: (1) the European
Schools, which have seen the social entrepreneurship as an action promoted by new generations
and renewal movements which have occurred within the traditional social economy;
(2) the Anglo-Saxon approach, that has considered these practices as businesses or companies
that are distinguished by their social mission and (3) the Latin American perspective,
which has linked entrepreneurship to a solidarity activity of popular base.
Currently in literature, both in books and scholar articles, there are several definitions for
social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneur (Zahra et al., 2009).
For the present study, a set of definitions commonly accepted and most cited in publications
referenced in the Scopus database will be considered. In order to list the most relevant
definitions, a search under keywords with the term “social entrepreneur” was undertaken. A
summary of the social entrepreneur definitions found in literature is presented in the below
Table 1.
Table 1: Definitions of social entrepreneur
Source
Leadbeater (1997)
Thake & Zadek (1997)
Dees (1998)
Definition
Social entrepreneurs are entrepreneurial, innovative, and “transformatory” individuals
who are also: leaders, storytellers, people managers, visionary opportunists and
alliance builders. They recognize a social problem and organize, create, and manage a
venture to make social change.
Social entrepreneurs are driven by a desire for social justice. They seek a direct link
between their actions and an improvement in the quality of life for the people with
whom they work and those that they seek to serve. They aim to produce solutions
which are sustainable financially, organizationally, socially and environmentally.
Play the role of change agents in the social sector, by: (1) Adopting a mission to create
and sustain social value (not just private value), (2) Recognizing and relentlessly
pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission, (3) Engaging in a process of
continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning, (4) Acting boldly without being limited
by resources currently in hand, and (5) Exhibiting heightened accountability to the
constituencies served and for the outcomes created.
Bornstein (1998)
Reis & Clohesy (1999)
Thompson, Alvy, & Lees
(2000)
A social entrepreneur is a path breaker with a powerful new idea who combines
visionary and real-world problem-solving creativity, has a strong ethical fibre, and is
totally possessed by his or her vision for change.
Social entrepreneurs create social value through innovation and leveraging financial
resources… for social, economic and community development.
Social entrepreneurs are people who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy
some unmet need that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet, and who
gather together the necessary resources (generally people, often volunteers, money,
and premises) and use these to “make a difference”.