How Opportunities Develop in Social Entrepreneurship

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© 2010 Baylor University

E T&P

How Opportunities
Develop in Social
Entrepreneurship
Patricia Doyle Corner
Marcus Ho

The purpose of this article was to extend existing research on opportunity identification in the social entrepreneurship literature through empirically examining this phenomenon. We used an inductive, theory-building design that surfaced patterns in social value creation across multiple case studies. The patterns showed actors seeing a social need and prospecting ideas that could address it. Data also revealed multiple, not individual, actors, dynamically engaged in interactions that nudged an opportunity into manifestation. Also, data suggested complementarities to effectuation and rational/economic processes that are divergent theoretical approaches to the study of entrepreneurship to date.

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he term social entrepreneurship (SE) covers a range of societal trends, organizational forms and structures, and individual initiatives (Roper & Cheney, 2005). It has been broadly conceptualized as projects that reflect two key elements: an overarching social mission and entrepreneurial creativity (Nicholls, 2006; Peredo & McLean, 2006). Much of the research on SE to date has focused on defining and describing this phenomenon
(Hockerts, 2006; Mair & Marti, 2006). Strongly featured in these descriptions is the idea of opportunity recognition or the identification of opportunities to solve social problems or create social value (Dees, 2001, 2007; Mair & Marti; Peredo & McLean; Shaw &
Carter, 2007; Thompson, 2002; Weerawardena & Mort, 2006). SE, thus, is similar to commercial entrepreneurship in that the recognition of opportunities to create or innovate is the initiation point of the entrepreneurial process (Austin, Stevenson, & Wei-Skillern,
2006). However, scholars suggest that opportunities for SE are likely to be distinct from opportunities in the commercial sector and need to be examined in their own right
(Dorado,

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