Social Entrepreneurship: Snapshots of a Research Field in Emergence

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is a term used to describe innovative approaches to address social problems. Over the past ten years, the subject has gained increasing interest on the lecture circuits of public administration and business schools. As Paul Light, a professor of public administration wryly stated, ‘There appears to be plenty of evidence that social entrepreneurship exists, particularly when measured by the rapidly increasing number of conferences, case studies, and funders interested in the topic’ (Light, 2005: 1).