Social entrepreneurship research in Asia-Pacific: perspectives and opportunities

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to facilitate researchers, academicians and entrepreneurs gain insights on the social entrepreneurship concept and future research opportunities in the context of the Asia-Pacific countries (APAC). Design/methodology/approach The diversity of social entrepreneurship phenomenon visible in 101 journal publications was reviewed and analyzed to identify research perspectives and opportunities, with special focus on papers published on the APAC context between 1998 and 2015. The keywords for search were “social entrepreneurship”, “social enterprises”, “social entrepreneur” and the names of all countries in APAC. Findings The study identifies three prominent themes in need of more research in the APAC countries: contextual, institutional and personal factors surrounding social entrepreneurship; usage of market orientation by social enterprises to generate economic and social value; and impact of social entrepreneurship education on generating talent pool for social enterprises. Originality/value During the review on the social entrepreneurship concept, it was felt that most research originated from both sides of the Atlantic rather than the APAC. Interestingly, no review was found on research published on social entrepreneurship as perceived and practiced in APAC. Therefore, this paper would be of particular value to any researcher who would conduct social entrepreneurship research in the Asia-Pacific context. Asia-Pacific offers immense scope for empirical research for theory generation and theory testing in different contexts.

Comparing mission statements of social enterprises and corporate enterprises in the new and renewable energy sector of India: a computer aided content analysis study

“…Efforts to define social enterprises abound with lack of agreement among the fraternity of researchers on a single definition, thereby leading to definitional confusions (Mair and Marti 2006;Short et al 2009;Doherty et al 2014;Sengupta and Sahay 2017). Years of research and debate has led the contested concept of social entrepreneurship evolve into a cluster concept which is inclusive of four constructs that come together to create social value: social innovation, market orientation, social entrepreneur and the social enterprise organization (Choi and Majumdar 2014).…”

“…Years of research and debate has led the contested concept of social entrepreneurship evolve into a cluster concept which is inclusive of four constructs that come together to create social value: social innovation, market orientation, social entrepreneur and the social enterprise organization (Choi and Majumdar 2014). The review of literature conducted by Sengupta and Sahay (2017) reveals that a common consensus among past researchers reveal that social enterprises are "hybrid enterprises with dual purposes of social value creation and market orientation, at varying degrees, to achieve a double bottom line of economic and social wealth". These enterprises pursue public purposes by employing private means, and solve social issues outside state or market imposed limitations (Halpern 1997).…”

Social enterprises in the Indian context: conceptualizing through qualitative lens

“…And then, there are those who perceive social innovation as the key to social entrepreneurship, irrespective of whether commercial activities are adopted or not (Martin & Osberg 2007). Sengupta and Sahay (2017a) suggest, after observing a convergence of concepts in a systematic literature review, that a social enterprise is a hybrid organization that tries to achieve both market orientation and social value creation for a double bottom-line. However, the phenomenon is strongly influenced by contextual, structural and institutional forces, thereby leading to regional perspectives (Kerlin 2010;Sengupta & Sahay 2017a).…”

“…Sengupta and Sahay (2017a) suggest, after observing a convergence of concepts in a systematic literature review, that a social enterprise is a hybrid organization that tries to achieve both market orientation and social value creation for a double bottom-line. However, the phenomenon is strongly influenced by contextual, structural and institutional forces, thereby leading to regional perspectives (Kerlin 2010;Sengupta & Sahay 2017a). Therefore, in a few select parts of the world, policy makers have given different identities to social enterprises, thereby acknowledging their contribution and creating an ecosystem supportive for the evolution of the enterprises.…”

“…The social entrepreneurship phenomenon has been well researched on both sides of the Atlantic. But the social entrepreneurship concept in the Asian context and in the context of emerging economies, is in need of extensive empirical investigation to identify what is relevant and replicable from the social entrepreneurship structures and systems developed in the West (Doherty et al 2014;Sengupta & Sahay 2017a;Sengupta et al 2017). In the emerging economies, the social causeattractors (Dietz & Porter 2012) are very elementary and the critical issues are triggered by shared necessity (Defourny & Kim 2011); such as, livelihood generation, poverty eradication, rural entrepreneurship, improved education, to name a few.…”