Resoruce Based View of Social Entrepreneurship

The emerging field of social entrepreneurship calls for a need for new integrated theories to contribute to the discipline and help grow the field. Social Entrepreneurship has been a topic of academic interest for the past few decades; however, there has been little scholarly output in mainstream journals (Short, Moss, & Lumpkin 2009). Social entrepreneurship is commonly defined as “entrepreneurial activity with an embedded social purpose” (Austin et al. 2006). Social entrepreneurs play a role of change agents in society by adopting missions to create and sustain social value. They recognize and pursue new opportunities to serve the particular mission at hand. Social entrepreneurs engage in a process of continuous innovation, adaption and learning. With these components, social entrepreneurs are able to act without being limited by current resources. They are accountable to the constituencies served and for outcomes created as a result of their actions (Dees, 1998).

Although social entrepreneurs usually start rather small their initiatives often have global relevance, issues such as unemployment, incarceration, disease, small business creation, access to clean water, renewable energy, waste management etc. These issues and needs usually arise within a disenfranchised sector of society, and they are the drivers of social entrepreneurship. The desires or needs of the disadvantage segment of society are defined in the literature as a positive externalities. Positive externalities are situations when the potential for value capture is lower than the potential for value creation because the benefits of society outweigh the benefits that could possibly be accrued by the organization or entrepreneur (Santos, 2012). Social entrep...

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...Journal of Business Ethics: Volume 111, Issue 3, Pages 335-351.

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