Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

Throughout the 20th century multiple discourses of the nature of enterprise and the entrepreneur have developed. In this article, we trace these discourses and perspectives as a backdrop to understanding social and economic entrepreneurship. The article considers the nature of social enterprise and whether,indeed how, it might be construed as a form of entrepreneurship. It is argued that in the past social enterprises have been modelled on tenets of ‘not-for-profit’ charitable organizations that have attracted human and social capital with pro-social, community-spirited motives, and have engendered survival strategies premised on grant dependency. In the longer term, we argue, social enterprises should be self-sustaining and therefore entrepreneurial in their endeavours.From these premises, we suggest that the definition of entrepreneurship might be modified to include the creation of ‘social and economic value’ and may thus be applied to both private, entrepreneurial ventures as well as social enterprises.