At the Skoll Centre, we use the following definition of social entrepreneurship to provide parameters for our research inquiry:
- Social Entrepreneurship is the product of individuals, organisations, and networks that challenge conventional structures causing inadequate provision or unequal distribution of social and environmental goods by addressing these failures and identifying new opportunities for better alternatives.
Social entrepreneurship must display all three of the following key characteristics:
- Sociality: a context, process and/or set of outputs that are for public benefit.
- Innovation: the creation of new ideas and models that address social or environmental issues This can be manifested in three ways: a new product or service (institutional innovation); the use of existing goods and services in new, more socially productive ways (incremental innovation); and/or the reframing of norms to redefine social problems and suggest new solutions (disruptive innovation).
- Market orientation: the performance-driven, competitive, outlook that drives greater accountability and co-operation across sectors. Market-orientation can include anything from conventional competitive markets to the exchange of social and/or environmental value.
Is there consensus on the definition of social entrepreneurship?
No one official definition has been standardised to define social entrpreneurship.
Diverse understandings of the term exist across the world. Due to different local context, based upon diverse socio-historical, political, and economic foundations, various nuanced definitions of social entrepreneurship have naturally emerged.
As such, researchers, field-building partners, and practioners are exploring the evolving conceptualisations of social entrepreneurship. A healthy debate surrounding the discourse of the term is driving new understandings of how we understand the field and key agents with in it. This growing discussion is firmly encouraged, as it offers new perspectives and insights into how we may understand the evolution and future of social entrepreneurship.