Dynamic of the Evaluation of Social Entrepreneurship Concept: A Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction

Bibliometric analysis was first introduced by Derek J. De Solla in 1965 (Boyack, et al., 2005). It consists of applying statistical methods to track changes in a particular scientific research subject, analyze the quantity of publications on the subject and objectively detect trends in a discipline (Calabretta et al., 2011). However, such analyzes provide useful information for specialists who want to evaluate scientific activity (Duque Oliva et al., 2006). In addition, it helps authors better recognize their field and thus create clearer publication policies (Zupic & Čater 2015). It is also used in the analysis of the structure or dynamics of a bibliometric research, an institute, a researcher, a field (Cobo et al.,2011).

There are different types of bibliometric analysis. These are Citation Analysis, Co-citation Analysis, Bibliographical Coupling, Co-author Analysis, Co-word Analysis. Among these types of analysis, Citation Analysis, Co-citation Analysis, and Bibliographical Coupling use citation data for impact and similarity analysis. Co-author Analysis uses co-author data to find author relationships. Co-word Analysis analyzes links between concepts with the help of titles, keywords and summaries (Zupic & Čater,2015).

In this study, citation analysis and Co-word analysis, which are among the bibliometric analysis methods, were applied. Citation analysis is the application of “direct counts of references to or from other documents” to identify articles that are frequently cited within a specific area or journal and play a major role in the development of the research area (Charvet et al., 2008). Citation analysis enables to develop an objective perspective on the relationships between cited and quoted articles (Gundolf & Filser, 2013). In the Co- word analysis, the keywords used in scientific articles are taken as a basis to examine the conceptual structure of a field (Cobo et al., 2011). In the Co-word analysis, keywords accepted as data are considered to be conceptually related (Koseoglu et al., 2016). The network obtained at different times provides an understanding of the change of the conceptual structure (Coulter et al., 1998).

In this research, performing citation analysis and co-word analysis will enable to find the answers to the following questions about social entrepreneurship discipline (Zupic & Čater 2015):

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  Citation Analysis;

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    Which journals were most influential on the flow of social entrepreneurship literature?

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    Who are the experts in the field of social entrepreneurship?

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    What is the recommended “reading list” in the field of social entrepreneurship?

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  Co-word Analysis;

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    What are the issues related to the concept of social entrepreneurship?

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    How did the concept of social entrepreneurship develop?

In this research, the data obtained from the Web of Science (WOS) online database containing scientific studies in all disciplines and the VOSviewer program were used. The scanning in the WOS database was made under the title of “Social Entrepreneurship*” within the scope of academic articles. The study was carried out within the scope of citation analysis and co-word analysis on a total of 926 academic articles in SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, BKCI-S, BKCI-SSH, ESCI indexes scanned in the WoS database.

Social Entrepreneurship

In recent years, the interest in social entrepreneurship in the academia continues to increase. The reason for this interest is the contribution of social entrepreneurship to both social development and economic development (Paredo and McClean, 2006). Social entrepreneurship focuses on solving social problems and increasing individual welfare by adding value to the society. The process of adding value to the society and the individual starts with a sense of mission triggered by a social transformation or opportunity on the social entrepreneur candidate, and continues with the effective use of the resources held by the social entrepreneur. Finally, the initiative makes a deep contribution to society (Yunus, 2007).