ABSTRACT
The main objective of the paper is to find out the ways that facilitate international comparative studies in the field of social entrepreneurship (SE). As the definition of SE differs according to the country, it is quite difficult to conduct a valid statistical research in this area. Furthermore, as a corollary, research is usually carried out on small sample sizes, which limits the generalisability of the findings. Thus, the aim of this paper is to address both these theoretical and methodological issues from a systematic analysis of academic literature.
The paper first describes the nature of SE in comparison to other types of entrepreneurship. Next, existing social entrepreneurial paradigms are presented. The sections are followed by the analysis of heterogeneity of the conceptions by distinguishing the legal differences relating to public policies and the conceptual differences relating to academic debates. Finally, a common definition is proposed from the common core of these approaches.
