Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur, someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial processes to organize, create and manage a non-profit, for-profit, or hybrid venture to address it.

The Wikipedia entry for social entrepreneurship notes:

While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur also measures positive returns to society. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further broaden social, cultural and environmental goals. Social entrepreneurs are commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors but this need not preclude making a profit.

Successful social entrepreneurs are adept at creating and introducing new ideas, processes and products into existing systems. Overtime, the impact of these new ideas and actions is strengthened by connections to institutional entrepreneurship.