Social Entrepreneurship: A Content Analysis

Abstract

Competing definitions and limited empirical research are impediments to the emerging field of social entrepreneurship. Our study provides a systematic review of the literature and empirical materials used. A standardized search of academic databases and citation analyses revealed trends in the literature. Content analysis was applied to a total of 567 unique articles from 1987 to 2008 revealing patterns in the research. A total of 274 unique case studies or examples were cited in 123 articles, and we analysed their characteristics. Generally, we found very little empirical data on the topic, confirming the need for more rigorous empirical research. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper provides a content analysis of the literature on social entrepreneurship, with particular emphasis on case studies. Using standardized search terms in several bibliographic databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, and Google Scholar), we trace the trends in the literatures on: “entrepreneur ” OR “entrepreneurship”; “social entrepreneur ” OR “social entrepreneurship”; “social movement”; and “social marketing. ” We plotted the results by year for the period from 1987 to 2007. Our citation analysis demonstrates that despite growth in the literature on “social entrepreneurship ” in recent years, it remains dwarfed by the research on “entrepreneurship ” and “entrepreneurs, ” as well as on “social movements”.