CFP: Social Entrepreneurship (ETP)

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

Call for Papers - Social Entrepreneurship
Special Issue of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
Social Entrepreneurship
Deadline: 31 Dec 2008

Guest editors:
Alex Nicholls, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, University of
Oxford Greg Dees, CASE, Duke University Sara Carter, University of
Strathclyde

While social entrepreneurship (SE) is not a new phenomenon, it is an
emerging area for scholarly enquiry. The extant literature has mainly
focused on questions of definition, description and enumeration. As the
scholarly foundations of SE are still under construction, this special
issue offers a timely opportunity to evaluate the academic potential of
the subject.

In order to move the debate beyond definitions, the editors particularly
welcome two types of manuscripts: those that advance theoretical
discourses and new empirical studies that go beyond case examples.

With respect to theory building, social entrepreneurship has been
largely located within business and management studies, specifically as
a subset of commercial entrepreneurship. Most research has explored the
role and nature of the individual social entrepreneur, as well as the
implications of applying conventional business disciplines (marketing,
strategy, operations management etc) to SE as a new unit of analysis.
This special issue aims to broaden the disciplinary base of SE into new
areas (economics, sociology, anthropology, public policy, political
economy), as well as test the assumption that SE may be conceived as
social action seen through the lens of entrepreneurship (perhaps it is,
in fact, best conceived as entrepreneurship seen through the lens of the
social?). A key ambition for this special issue is to examine whether SE
could develop into a new, multi-disciplinary field of scholarship or
remain simply a novel unit of analysis for existing disciplines.

With respect to empirical work, SE has been researched almost
exclusively via the case study method. This has helped identify a group
of foundational examples (Grameen Bank, Fair Trade, BRAC, Benetech etc),
but their use has tended to be descriptive rather than analytical,
neither have these cases supported theory building beyond individual and
contingent examples. The editors welcome examples of empirical
methodologies that go beyond the single organization as the unit of
analysis. Large-scale surveys and longitudinal research would be
particularly valuable, as would data that is international in scope.

Where to set the boundaries of SE remains contested, but for this
special issue there is a preference for a broad perspective that
encompasses organizational, network or individual action that
demonstrates elements of sociality, innovation, and market orientation.
With respect to discrete topic areas of significance to SE, a number can
be identified:

* Social innovation and dissemination
* Finance and resource strategies
* Governance and accountability
* Impact measurement and performance
* Political relations and the nature of social change
* Cross-sectoral partnerships and hybrids
* Exits, failure and the 'dark side' of SE

These topics are not prescriptive and the editors are open to other
research consistent with the above discussion.

Submissions are to be prepared in a form consistent with the ET&P style
guide and should be submitted via the ET&P website, at Manuscript
Central, being sure to complete the "special issue box," by December
31st 2008. Publication is scheduled for the July 2010 issue. Please
contact Alex Nicholls (alex.nicholls at sbs.ox.ac.uk) if you have any
questions about the special issue.

More info at http://www.baylor.edu/business/ETP/index.php?id=24908