The making of a social entrepreneur: From participant to cause champion within a sport-for-development context

•We conducted a narrative inquiry within a sport-for-development context.•We illustrate the emergence of social entrepreneurship in a sport-for-development setting.•We examine factors of a sport-for-development initiative that lead to social entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a sport-for-development initiative, Street Soccer USA, on one of its most successful participants in order to understand her experiences, expectations, and motivations towards becoming a cause champion and social entrepreneur and continuing her activism. We adopted a narrative inquiry approach for this study in an effort to explore this topic in a detailed manner. Guided by previous literature within the field of social entrepreneurship, we found there were three specific background influences – sport, life, and traumatic experiences – which influenced her social entrepreneurial leanings. Within that context we show how the variables of people, opportunity, and capital intersect and lead towards the social value proposition of the social entrepreneur. Drawn from the findings, we provide theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research in the field of sport-for-development and social entrepreneurship.