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Social entrepreneurship has become a relevant topic in business, society and politics. Public
attention has also been aroused through the increasing presence of social entrepreneurs in
the media and numerous popular science publications. Here we may mention David Bornstein
´s book “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas”
(2004) as well as “The Power of Unreasonable People” by Elkington und Hartigan
(Bornstein, 2004, Elkington and Hartigan 2008).1 In his case-study based publication, Bornstein
highlights the power (vision, mission and passion) of individual social entrepreneurs
in various historical, economic, legal, political and socio-cultural contexts. Many other recent
publications in this field focus on the person of the social entrepreneur rather than on
the economic function of social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs act as „change
agents and engines“ of social and economic progress and bring about positive change in the
economy as well as the society through their pro-active and innovative activities. Literature
on social entrepreneurship often focuses on role models such as Muhammad Yunus.
Some researchers argue that social entrepreneurship is a phenomenon which is anything
but new (Boddice, 2009). For example, Bornstein and Davis (2010, p. 2) state: “Social entrepreneurs
have always existed. But in the past they were called visionaries, humanitarians,
philanthropists, reformers, saints, or simply great leaders”. Maybe social entrepreneurship
is as old as mankind itself. Nonetheless, their work today is different because it has
achieved a potentially global scale (Nicholls, 2006a). At any rate, the term social entrepreneurship
is relatively new. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate how this modern-day,
worldwide social movement came about and how the concept of social entrepreneurship
could be described and explained. |
