A Comprehensive Review of Social Entrepreneurship Research: An Analysis of the Past Four Decades

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Technological Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

In today's world, where we face challenges such as poverty, environmental degradation, and social injustice, social enterprises have emerged as sustainable and effective solutions. These enterprises, by using commercial approaches, aim to achieve social goals, improve economic conditions, and create lasting positive impacts in communities. Over recent decades, social entrepreneurship has gained increasing significance, making a comprehensive scientific examination of this field crucial for understanding its performance and societal impact. This research, aimed at providing an overview of social entrepreneurship using a quantitative approach through content and bibliometric analysis of 254 academic articles from the Scopus database, covering 1989 to 2024. The findings indicate a significant rise in the published articles, particularly between 2022 and 2024, highlighting the growing focus of researchers on this field. The co-occurrence analysis of keywords identified five key clusters, showing that research has mainly focused on innovation and social development. Additionally, the author collaboration network analysis revealed seven clusters, with most research concentrating on "Dynamic Effects on Social Entrepreneurship." These findings can assist policymakers design policies that support social innovation and collaboration, fostering social entrepreneurship development. Meanwhile, tthe researchers can benefit from network and keyword analysis to identify collaborators and focus on key topics. The social enterprise owners can also leverage networks and financial innovations to scale their models and achieve sustainable social change.

Keywords


  • Receive Date: 23 August 2024
  • Revise Date: 31 August 2024
  • Accept Date: 05 September 2024
  • First Publish Date: 22 September 2024
  • Publish Date: 22 September 2024