Social entrepreneurship and economic development

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship as a phenomenon has been growing in the whole world, especially in the last 30 years, and involves entities operating in the third sector as well as for-profits. This phenomenon is of particular interest because it is more and more conceived as an innovative tool to addresses social needs which are not met either by the public nor by the private sector, therefore solving the “market failures”. Thus, social entrepreneurship is considered by some as a revolutionary method to achieve sustainable, self-sufficient and long-term social impact. This way, in the bigger picture, it could be the expression of a new economic mindset: a way to achieve sustainable economic and social development in a new emerging and changing economic paradigm. Despite the fact that the concept has been receiving a lot of attention from several actors in society and scholars as well, there is still no consensus on the definition of the concept, nor a developed theoretical framework to build the future studies on or to help practitioners nowadays. The master thesis will base on the existing literature to try to define the drivers of the phenomenon and the concept of social entrepreneurship, distinguishing it from other kind of activities. Afterwards, focus will be put on the forms of social entrepreneurship, particularly on the social enterprise. The scope of the phenomenon will be described and particular attention will be put on if and how social entrepreneurship impacts local and national economic development.