Small Business Economics

, Volume 40, Issue 3, pp 693–714 | Cite as

Designing a global standardized methodology for measuring social entrepreneurship activity: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor social entrepreneurship study

  • Jan Lepoutre
  • Rachida Justo
  • Siri Terjesen
  • Niels Bosma
Article
First Online:
Accepted:

Abstract

Although there is a high level of practitioner, policymaker, and scholar interest in social entrepreneurship, most research is based on case studies and success stories of successful social entrepreneurs in a single country. We develop a methodology to measure population-based social entrepreneurship activity (SEA) prevalence rates and test it in 49 countries. Our results provide insights into institutional and individual drivers of SEA. Using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) methodology of Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA), we find that countries with higher rates of traditional entrepreneurial activity also tend to have higher rates of social entrepreneurial activity. We develop a broad definition of social entrepreneurship and then explore types based on social mission, revenue model, and innovativeness.

Keywords

Social entrepreneurship activity GEM Cross-country Social entrepreneurship Global entrepreneurship monitor 

JEL Classifications

L26 L30 L31 NGOs N30 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants of the 6th Annual Satter Conference on Social Entrepreneurship for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. We are also very grateful to Jill Kickul and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments to develop the paper. We thank GERA and the entire GEM community for their support and dedication in collecting and processing the data. Portions of this article appear, with permission, in the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Social Entrepreneurship Report.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jan Lepoutre
    • 1
  • Rachida Justo
    • 2
  • Siri Terjesen
    • 3
  • Niels Bosma
    • 4
    • 5
  1. 1.Vlerick Leuven Gent Management SchoolGhentBelgium
  2. 2.Instituto de Empresa Business SchoolMadridSpain
  3. 3.Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Kelley School of BusinessIndiana UniversityBloomingtonUSA
  4. 4.Utrecht School of EconomicsUtrecht UniversityUtrechtThe Netherlands
  5. 5.Global Entrepreneurship Research AssociationLondonUK

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