Working Paper 15: Abstract

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Transformation:  

An Exploratory Study  

This study provides a comparative analysis of seven cases of social entrepreneurship that have been widely recognized as successful.  The paper suggests factors associated with successful social entrepreneurship, particularly with social entrepreneurship that leads to significant changes in the social, political and economic contexts for poor and marginalized groups.  It generates hypotheses about core innovations, leadership, organization, and scaling up in successful social entrepreneurship.  The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the practice of social entrepreneurship, for further research, and for the continued development of support technologies and institutions that will encourage future social entrepreneurship.