Social Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Approach to Solving Social Problems

Social entrepreneurship is an emerging alternative to governmental and non-profit approaches to social problems.Social entrepreneurs look at the 'triple bottom line' of people, planet and profit.They aim to achieve both a return on investment and a return to society, and address social problems effectively where others have not.In this paper we review the current literature on social entrepreneurship and attempt to clarify the key concepts and dynamics.We propose a definition of Social Entrepreneurship as 'using profit making enterprises to address social, environmental and other problems that were traditionally entrusted to governmental and non-profit organizations'.We present a model of social entrepreneurship, provide suggestions for practice and provide a research agenda for scholars.