The Practice of Social Entrepreneurship: Theory and the Swedish Experience

The notion of social entrepreneurship, and the manifest linkage between social entrepreneurship, social change and economic development attract increasing attention from scholars and policy-makers alike. A generally accepted definition of the concept and a conceptual framework in which it could be integrated are, however, still lacking. It is possible to distinguish two major approaches in the growing literature on social entrepreneurship; both emphasize the social desirability of the initiatives studied, though from slightly different angles:

1. Focusing on intentions and (successfully achieved) outcomes: “innovative efforts to solve persistent social problems of poverty and marginalization that, to some extent, have been successful in increasing their impact and catalyzing social transformation.” (Alvord et al., 2004:137);
2. Focusing on opportunities and needs, in an adaptation of Vyakaraman et al.’s (1997) approach to the realities of social enterprising. Social entrepreneurs thus are “People who realize where there is an opportunity to satisfy some unmet needs that the state welfare system will not or cannot meet and who pool the necessary resources (…) and use these to ‘make a difference’”. (Thompson et al., 2000).

The practice of social entrepreneurship theory and the Swedish experience