Given the noteworthy contribution to the global socio-economic development, research on social enterprises (SE) has gained prominence over past two decades. Making a clear departure from for-profit counterparts, the core purpose of SEs is to deliver a social mission while at the same time staying financially viable and as a consequence, “sustainability” is strongly embedded in their core drive of existence. Rapidly sprouting body of literature on SE posits that “sustainability” is intensely coincided with “social enterprises.” Although “sustainability” has been a buzz word in the context of SE, lacking of systematization and categorization of knowledge hinders the advancement of SE specific research. Consequently, the primary objective of this paper is systematization and categorization of the extant knowledge on sustainability in SE research context. The study carried-out a systematic literature survey from reputed databases; Scopus, Social Science Citation Index and Science Direct. Removing the repetitions, 136 papers on sustainability was compiled for analysis. The analytical approach was two-fold: First, a citation analysis was performed in order to evaluate the prominent, emerging and popular sustainability-based research areas in the extant body of knowledge in the field. Second, a thematic analysis was performed to analyze and interpret explicit themes on which sustainability concept has been investigated. Paper discovered six themes that the sustainability concept has been researched through significant research popularity disparities can be witnessed among the discovered themes. Since this paper identifies several research gaps and inconsistencies, it noticeably sets path for future research on the concept of sustainability in SE.

The burgeoning literature postulates that a firm’s degree of openness for external parties in building its knowledge base undoubtedly enables it gaining competitive advantage though a little attention has been devoted to investigating the phenomena from small and medium enterprise (SME) perspective. Accordingly, this study investigates how open innovation orientation leads nurturing greater innovation and acquiring greater sustainable goals and specifically, how entrepreneurial orientation and resource bricolage facilitate the whole process. Drawing upon a sample of 442 SMEs, the study followed a quantitative approach to investigate the focal research question. The results reveal that open innovation orientation of SMEs significantly influences on nurturing greater innovation and attaining sustainable goals in long-run while the entrepreneurial orientation drives the whole process. The study also finds that the resource bricolage plays a significant role in converting SMEs more open innovation oriented and fostering greater innovation. By doing so, this study provides noteworthy theoretical and managerial insights.

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The media, governments, and academics throughout the world are focusing progressively on social entrepreneurship as it becomes an increasingly significant global phenomenon. Similarly, the past literature declares that firm’s approaches to social responsibility could vary, but they always place a greater emphasis on satisfying and shaping the expectations of stakeholders. In a similar vein, it is evident that organizations face a unique problem that goes far beyond balancing their interests and demands with those of their stakeholders. Thereby, the underlaying aim of this study is to explore the role of stakeholder pressure interventions in social entrepreneurship. Further, this paper shed light on the future growth of the stakeholder pressure in social enterprise research agenda and how to entice new researchers to participate to it. This is primarily a conceptual study using a qualitative approach to the topic at hand. A comprehensive literature review and the considerations garnered from informants given. According to our views, the conceptual and empirical scope of the stakeholder pressure in social entrepreneurship area must be redefined and further explored. The insights discussed in this paper aid in resolving and explaining some of the arguments and conceptual and practical obstacles that have impeded the growth of the stakeholder pressure in social enterprise research agenda.

Social entrepreneurship is becoming widely recognized as essential to developing economies and societies. However, we find that the lack of a clear and cohesive conceptualization for understanding the distinctive context and reliable role of social entrepreneurship is a challenging aspect. Furthermore, the research is lacking in developing country perspectives. Accordingly, this study argues that a social entrepreneurship conceptual model needs to be developed from a developing country perspective to advance the literature on the social entrepreneurship notion. Specifically, this study followed a qualitative research approach and conducted in-person semi-structured interviews with 24 Sri Lankan social enterprises by adopting the maximum variation sampling technique. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Consequently, our model explicates how social entrepreneurial orientation leads to the triple bottom line through dynamic capability and social innovation. The proposed model anticipates that social entrepreneurial orientation alone cannot achieve the triple bottom line in social entrepreneurship. Thus, based on existing research evidence, we believe that the following constructs—social entrepreneurial orientation, dynamic capabilities, social innovations, and the triple bottom line—can be integrated to provide a solid conceptual model for social entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries.