Women-led social enterprises as engines of inclusive innovation and sustainable development: a multidimensional literature review using the TCM framework

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Women-led social enterprises are increasingly important for inclusive and sustainable development, addressing persistent challenges such as poverty, gender inequality, and limited access to education and healthcare. Following the PRISMA framework, this study conducted a multidimensional literature review of 2,012 articles retrieved from SCOPUS using an advanced keyword search across titles, abstracts, and keywords. The inclusion criteria covered English-language journal articles published between 2010 and 2025 in Business, Management and Accounting; Social Sciences and Economics; and Econometrics and Finance. Data were retrieved on 30 September 2025. Following manual screening and refinement aligned with the study objectives, 272 articles were retained for eligibility assessment. Restricting the sample to Q1 journals resulted in a final corpus of 54 articles. Using R and Biblioshiny, the study analysed research patterns through the TCM (Theories, Context, and Methods) framework. Findings indicate that women social entrepreneurs contribute significantly to localising Sustainable Development Goals through creativity, empathy, and grassroots engagement, despite financial, policy, and societal barriers. The study identifies gaps in longitudinal and contextual research and advocates gender-sensitive policies and inclusive support mechanisms. It is limited to SCOPUS-indexed Q1 publications; Web of Science may provide additional perspectives and strengthen future research.