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If entrepreneurship is amid jungle of theories and has many theorists, its social orientation or what is known as social entrepreneurship (SE) is amid arid land of theories and suffers under-theorizing which could be inherently stemmed from its diversely proposed definitions. To be situated in an embryonic pre-paradigmatic phase, getting to a more unanimous definition in this realm is the first step in laying a solid foundation for SE theorizing. As a pioneering study, the paper aims to investigate the epistemological foundations of SE definitions critically to propose a more convergent definition for SE. To fulfill this goal epistemological justifications for the definitional components of SE are presented. Therefore, it was necessary to rely on the relevant philosophical schools of thought in Epistemology (e.g. Empiricism, Internalism, Externalism, Verificationism and Falsificationism); first to discuss the controversies and oppositions to some components of the definitions for their exclusion and then to justify some other definitional components which are mostly accepted by the scholars for their inclusion in a final SE definition. Critical approach has helped us in specifying the maneuvering of thoughts in this field and determining the epistemological and definitional boundaries of SE. Finally, a more epistemologically-supported and justified definition was presented at the end of the paper. Moreover, one of the potential contributions of this paper could be its consensusmaking impact among SE scholars in defining SE phenomenon, which could also pave the way for future theorizing in SE. The originality of the paper lies in the application of Internalism, Externalism, Verificationism and Falsificationism concepts to SE definitions.

Human body, other animate beings, plants, and organizations are all dynamic and systemic entities. The similarity between living organisms and organizations, especially considering highly evolved organisms such as the human body, is noteworthy. Therefore, whenever an organization fails to accomplish its function and mission, an organizational symptom or disease may be envisaged to have come up; as a result, a variety of organizational symptoms and diseases can be considered. Recent studies have attempted to find analogies between the human body system and a social system such as an organization, to find analogous malfunctions and ailments, in order to enable the introduction of guidelines for the diagnosis of organizational symptoms and diseases, and their remedies and treatments. This paper deals with the concepts of biological metaphor and analogy, which have been present in organizational management for several decades. It attempts to study some subsystems of the human body analogous to the organizational subsystems, and their correspondingly analogous symptoms and diseases. Thus, some treatments and remedies are proposed accordingly, hoping to pave the way for further organizational management research within the development of clinical organizational pathology, based on the concepts of biological metaphor and analogy.

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