Social entrepreneurship and sustainable development

Social enterprises are the organizations founded, owned, and/or managed by the social entrepreneur(s). Their organizations can take different (sometimes multiple) legal forms, such as foundations, cooperatives, or limited liability companies. Some countries introduced separate organizational forms to do justice to the dual mission of social enterprises, such as low-profit limited liability company (L3Cs), benefit corporation (B-Corps), and community interest company (CICs) (Ebrahim et al. 2014). This is to create an enabling environment for social enterprises in which they can operate.

The next section (section “The Drivers of Social Entrepreneurship”) explains the drivers for social entrepreneurship and the reason for the current interest in the phenomenon. This is followed by a conceptualization of the multidimensional concept of social entrepreneurship and its subconcepts in section “Social Entrepreneurship and Its Subconcepts.” Subsequently, section “Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals” explains how social enterprises contribute to the sustainable development goals by solving societal problems and scaling for impact. It further goes into detail about the role of the social entrepreneur in this process. The conclusion is drawn in section “Conclusion,” which is followed by an agenda for future directions, specified for each of the subconcepts of social entrepreneurship in section “Future Directions.”