ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces social entrepreneurship both as a concept and as an activity, discusses its historical development and its various definitions, and specifies how social entrepreneurship is conceptualized. It discusses the Design Thinking as a process that can both support the gathering of knowledge and the development of social entrepreneurial ideas and solutions, providing an overview of how to conduct it and of its main advantages and limitations. The book also discusses the impact measurement, reflecting on the challenges it presents, explaining the main approaches used to engage in this activity in social entrepreneurship ecosystems, and providing some tips on how to identify helpful metrics, set up an impact measurement system, and report the impact achieved.
