The Social Entrepreneur

Abstract

Increasing interest in the Social Entrepreneur has evolved largely due to a desire to understand this growing group of individuals while the term itself is ill-defined. Given the growing and more complex global challenges, some of which are not unrelated to impacts of corporations operating without social responsibility, these actors are forging a new leadership role through the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities to solve problems. This chapter attempts to provide an understanding of who the Social Entrepreneur is in terms to one’s motivations and the leadership competencies that characterize one and in so doing identifies how these individuals differ from entrepreneurship and nonprofit organizations, while recognizing how the Social Entrepreneur must chart new ground to lead and facilitate change in context of shifting of political dynamics. Hence, the chapter argues for the inclusion of other fields to inform a more grounded understanding of the Social Entrepreneur beyond management, and more specifically, the spheres of leadership, civil society, and politics. This chapter provides an understanding of who the Social Entrepreneur is by describing first the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, the motivations of the Social Entrepreneur, and how the concept itself will likely shift in the context of larger systems’ influences.