The Social Case as a Business Case: Making Sense of Social Entrepreneurship from an Ordonomic Perspective

This article discusses how the theoretical perspective of ordonomics provides a frameworkfor better understanding and advancing the practice of social entrepreneurship.From an ordonomic perspective, the concept of social entrepreneurship offers a semanticinnovation (at the ideas level) whose potential for social innovation can be fullyreaped only if it is used as a heuristics for social structural change (on the institutionslevel). Social entrepreneurs recognize relevant social problems, interpret them as anentrepreneurial challenge, and succeed in turning what was a social case into a businesscase in a broader sense. Using the real-life example of a successful eco-social entrepreneur,the article demonstrates that such win-win solutions can be reconstructed as thesophisticated management of social dilemmas.[...]