Social entrepreneurship as transformative service for societal well-being

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has been a subject of academic interest for more than two decades. However, it is still considered as an emerging field of academic research. Some scholars attribute this to the lack common agreement of what social entrepreneurship is. Concurrently, the issue of the transformative service for improving well-being has been identified as one of the emerging areas of priorities service research. Despite the potential, such research has been under researched. This article thus aims to contribute to the knowledge by conceptualizing social entrepreneurship as a model of transformative service through the integrated theoretical lenses of innovation, entrepreneurship and service research. This conceptual paper maps social entrepreneurship and social innovation in a continuum of transformative service according to the types of change and the values they bring to the organizations and/or to the society. This conceptualization enhances understanding of the social entrepreneurship and innovation constructs in relation to transformative service concept.