Different Types of Social Entrepreneurship: The Role of Geography and Embeddedness on the Measurement and Scaling of Social Value

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 575-598

42 Pages Posted: 15 Mar 2010 Last revised: 7 Aug 2014

See all articles by Brett R. Smith

Brett R. Smith

Miami University of Ohio - Richard T. Farmer School of Business Administration

Christopher E. Stevens

Gonzaga University - School of Business Administration

Date Written: December 29, 2009

Abstract

With its continued emergence in both academic and practitioner communities, the diversity of organisations categorised as social entrepreneurship continues to expand. The increasing diversity represents a challenge to the field as it attempts to build a scientific base of knowledge. To address this issue, we build upon a typology of different forms of social entrepreneurship to theorise about how the role of ‘sites and spaces’ may affect the social entrepreneurial process. Specifically, we explain how variance in the geographic focus of different types of social entrepreneurship influences the types of social networks in which social entrepreneurship is embedded. Drawing upon this logic of embeddedness, we develop propositions about how the structural embeddedness of social entrepreneurship may affect the measurement and scaling of social value. The purpose of this paper is to add to the relatively sparse but growing theoretical foundation of the field of social entrepreneurship.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, embeddedness, scaling, social performance, social networks

Suggested Citation

Smith, Brett R. and Stevens, Christopher E., Different Types of Social Entrepreneurship: The Role of Geography and Embeddedness on the Measurement and Scaling of Social Value (December 29, 2009). Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Vol. 22, No. 6, pp. 575-598, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1529209

Brett R. Smith (Contact Author)

Miami University of Ohio - Richard T. Farmer School of Business Administration ( email )

Oxford, OH 45056
United States

Christopher E. Stevens

Gonzaga University - School of Business Administration ( email )

502 E. Boone Ave.
Spokane, WA 99258-0009
United States
509-313-3430 (Phone)
509-313-5811 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,039
Abstract Views
5,560
Rank
39,772
PlumX Metrics