2011
Chapter
Communities and Organizations

The Embeddedness of Social Entrepreneurship: Understanding Variation across Local Communities

By: Christian Seelos, Johanna Mair, Julie Battilana and M. Tina Dacin

Format:Print

Abstract

Social enterprise organizations (SEOs) arise from entrepreneurial activities with the aim to achieve social goals. SEOs have been identified as alternative and/or complementary to the actions of governments and international organizations to address poverty and poverty-related social needs. Using a number of illustrative cases, we explore how variation of local institutional mechanisms shapes the local "face of poverty" in different communities and how this relates to variations in the emergence and strategic orientations of SEOs. We develop a model of the productive opportunity space for SEOs as a basis and an inspiration for further scholarly inquiry.

Keywords

Social Entrepreneurship; Civil Society or Community; Local Range

Citation

Seelos, Christian, Johanna Mair, Julie Battilana, and M. Tina Dacin. "The Embeddedness of Social Entrepreneurship: Understanding Variation across Local Communities." In Communities and Organizations. Vol. 33, edited by Christopher Marquis, Michael Lounsbury, and Royston Greenwood, 333–363. Research in the Sociology of Organizations. Emerald Group Publishing, 2011.