Brief description
Social entrepreneurship aims to use entrepreneurial activity to develop innovative solutions to societal and social problems in order to drive sustainable social transformation. Unlike “traditional” entrepreneurship, profit is a means for social entrepreneurs to achieve their mission, but by no means the only one. Success is primarily measured by social impact. In this context, the term “social return on investment” was coined to identify the social value of an activity. Thus, social entrepreneurship is characterized by three aspects: the innovative solution, the focus on the mission, and the scalability of the idea.
We explore various questions regarding the differences between conventional businesses and social entrepreneurship. Furthermore, we examine manifestations within the cultural context and the diffusion of social innovations. Financing options for social entrepreneurship, e.g., crowdfunding, constitute another important part of our research. Specifically, we investigate the following questions, for example:
How can social innovation be scaled and disseminated by social entrepreneurs and their organizations?
How do social entrepreneurship and commercial enterprises differ in terms of their perspective on their own success?
How does social entrepreneurship differ in Germany and China?
The Social Entrepreneurship project investigated how social innovations can be scaled up and disseminated by social entrepreneurs and their organizations.