A type of entrepreneur that builds, launches, and operates ventures to tackle social needs unsatisfactorily addressed by existing institutions. They fill in the social gaps unattended by for-profit businesses or not-for-profit organizations. The social constructionist aims to spot and pursue opportunities that generate social wealth through systemized scalable solutions to meet emergent needs, solutions that can be transferred to other social contexts.
Published in Chapter:
A Qualitative Analysis of Social Entrepreneurship Involving Social Innovation and Intervention
Vera Fernandes (University of Aveiro, Portugal), António Moreira (DEGEI, GOVCOPP, University of Aveiro, Portugal), and Ana Isabel Daniel (University of Aveiro, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 22
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1978-2.ch018
Abstract
Social entrepreneurship is emerging as an innovative approach for dealing with complex social and environmental needs, and is an important lever for the development of a sustainable society. Social entrepreneurship and related concepts have had a growing attention in the academy, giving rise to dissimilar approaches in the United States of America and in Western Europe. Despite the importance of the Third Sector in Portugal, it has been difficult to set ideal definitions for social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneur and social enterprises. By means of a qualitative study involving four Portuguese social ventures, this chapter identifies contemporary socio-cultural and economic factors that foster social innovation and intervention in Portugal, and contributes to understand the role of social entrepreneur in this context.