Social Entrepreneurship’s Solutionism Problem

Abstract Social entrepreneurship has developed as an important area of theory and practice over the past three decades. Despite a broad consensus that it is a desirable method for addressing social and environmental problems, I argue it may instead have a negative societal impact as it reduces the pressure for ambitious legislation and institutional reforms that have more scope to effect change. Social entrepreneurs themselves are prone to a form of ‘solutionism’ in which they believe complex social problems can be addressed neatly through the apparatus of the entrepreneur, something I argue is ineffectual and inappropriate for tackling many of the deep‐seated and essentially ‘public’ structural problems we face. I offer some suggestions as to how researchers can provide some critical balance to theories of social entrepreneurship, specifically through better demarcating when social entrepreneurship is an optimal mechanism for addressing social problems, and when public policy may be preferable.