Where do we go from now? Research framework for social entrepreneurship

This paper aims at examining academic production on social entrepreneurship, in order to identify approaches and drivers, as well as offer an analytical overview on the topic. Social entrepreneurs are individuals with a social mission, capable of combining practices and knowledge as well as developing partnerships to promote sustainable social change. The weaving of a social mission into an enterprise can bring about social innovation through the development of solutions to long-standing problems and the improvement of the living conditions of a community. The present paper is the result of a systematic survey in the Web of Science database that aimed at analyzing academic production in the area. Its practical and theoretical contributions will allow the construction of a network of themes and the identification of new emerging areas. Moreover, it analyses the dimensions and drivers of social entrepreneurship research, obtaining thus an integrative perspective. It provides also a panoramic assessment of available researches, allowing the authors to identify gaps of knowledge and, consequently, new topics to be investigated. Finally, it can offer a unique perspective for institutions, companies and communities challenged by the need to perform holistic social innovations. The authors propose a research framework that may offer guidance to specialists and researchers willing to investigate the link between dimensions and elements of a social entrepreneurship from a social development point of view.