Is variety valuable? Comparing methods used to study social entrepreneurship and social action start up process

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is a process of organised action to address social issues. It results in a new organisation, but new organisations are vulnerable to closure and many do not survive more than five years. Despite this vulnerability, there is limited research into the process of starting new social entrepreneurship organisations. Research from other forms of organised action for positive social change, such as social movements and collective action, may offer insights. The process of starting these social actions appears to be similar to that used in social entrepreneurship. Each starts with a small group of people concerned to take action on a social issue. The founders create some forms of systems and structures during the organising process, and the process operates in a situation of constrained resources. Considering these similarities, methods used to study these organised social change actions were compared with those used in social entrepreneurship research. The review highlighted significant differences in research methods. Implications of these differences are discussed.