Setting the Stage for Paradigm Development: A 'Small-Tent' Approach to Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship has emerged as a field of considerable interest over the past two decades. Unfortunately, its rapid growth has come at the expense of a unified definition of this construct. In response, Dacin et al., Nicholls, and Santos recently proposed how efforts at theorizing might take shape and stimulate more robust scholarship in this area. This paper seeks to advance their work by advocating for a new definition of this construct that differentiates activity that creates real value for society in an entrepreneurial manner from that which does not. Finally, the paper concludes by addressing how understanding the construct in this light informs management theory.