ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to define the field and distinguish between business and social entrepreneurship in useful ways. It explores the field’s economic origins and examines the intentions of its practitioners. The chapter examines several models of the social entrepreneurship process, ultimately offering an original hybrid model as a guide for thinking about the field. It endeavors to distinguish social entrepreneurship from its cousin, business entrepreneurship, in ways that are useful. The chapter discusses social entrepreneurship’s economic origins and the role of individual intent and motivation in shaping efforts in the field. It also looks at several theoretical models of the entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship processes to help us understand the roles, players, functions, and interrelationships involved. In reviewing the various definitions of “social entrepreneurship,” “social entrepreneurs,” and “social enterprise,” a key similarity and a key difference between social entrepreneurship and business, or commercial, entrepreneurship become clear.
