Introduction

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship, a term that has emerged to describe the phenomenon of addressing social needs by using entrepreneurial (innovative) approaches and means, has gained increasing attention in the last decade. Although the phenomenon itself is not new, the interests in and the role of social entrepreneurship has changed – in academia as well as in practice (cf. Drayton, 2006, pp. 82–83; Edwards, 2008, pp. 15–16; Volkmann et al., 2012, pp. 5–12). Its current attention might be justified in a number of impressive examples and recent success stories; for instance, in the area of microfinance, work integration, or education and in the hope that social entrepreneurship could address yet unmet social and ecological challenges (Beckmann, 2012, p. 236; Huybrechts and Nicholls, 2012, p. 32).