The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in Social Work Scholarship
Although social entrepreneurship concepts were initially resisted by schools of business in the 1980s as excessively social, social entrepreneurship has since gained a high profile in management scholarship (Worsham, 2012). Although social entrepreneurship has gained a higher profile in social work recently, there is relatively little scholarship in social work journals specifically on social entrepreneurship, and some social work scholars may resist this subfield as excessively entrepreneurial. Additional theorizing on social entrepreneurship is necessary so that social work scholars can understand how social entrepreneurship theories potentially inform other theories of social interaction.
Methods
Conceptual analysis of social entrepreneurship in social work scholarship across three areas: 1) the historical antecedents of welfare reform made entrepreneurial and performance management concepts prominent in social work and are theorized by social work scholars; 2) social innovation, marketing, and enterprise as conceptually distinct yet related concepts for social work scholarship for which social entrepreneurship can serve as an organizing heuristic; and 3) conceptual distinctions between entrepreneurial domains such as financial management, talent management, and marketing, sales, and communications which are necessary to understand social entrepreneurship practice.
Results
Analysis of the three conceptual domains above suggests the following key findings: 1) Orienting approaches to social entrepreneurship can be framed as occurring across three models, one which sees profit as prominent and social benefits as indirect, one which sees profit and social benefits in tension with one another, and one which sees profit and social benefits as dependent on one another. 2) Social innovation and marketing have much in common with the evidence-based practice process and models of diffusion and dissemination of innovative interventions which are key concepts for social workers; 3) Interdisciplinary theorizing can be done by social welfare scholars without abandoning concepts of social entrepreneurship to managements scholars and other separate fields.
Conclusions and Implications
Social Entrepreneurship has tremendous potential for social work research. However, while additional theorizing needs to be carried out by social welfare scholars on this emerging field, they should also posit an important distinction: social service nonprofit organizations do not always act altruistically or that businesses are focused only on their “bottom-line” outlook. Organizations are reflections of complex values and philosophies, which are manifested in various ways. In general, what sets nonprofit organizations apart from other types is a commitment to some altruistic principles. In light of this complexity of organizations, social welfare scholars need to build on social entrepreneurship theory by rigorously testing some of the concepts emphasized in the social entrepreneurship literature in a multitude of social welfare contexts and settings. These empirical discoveries will allow scholars to make sense of the operationalized correlations between social work and social entrepreneurship theory and practice.
Reference
Worsham, E. L. (2012). Reflections and insights on teaching social entrepreneurship: An interview with Greg Dees. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 11(3), 442-452. doi: 10.5465/amle.2011.0024