Empirical evidence on the evolution of social innovation, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in
scientific literature
Claudia Brunner, University of Liechtenstein
Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise or Social Innovation are keywords, which become increasingly prominent
in today’s world (Ashoka, 2011). On the one hand, a huge number of social enterprises are in existence today and
hundreds or maybe even thousands of online platforms link an even much greater number of social entrepreneurs or
promote ideas for potential social innovations (Social Innovation Exchange, 2011; Young Foundation, 2011).
On the other hand, research and publications in scientific journals, seem to be still in an early stage of development
(Alvord, Brown, & Letts, 2004; Danko & Brunner, 2010; Danko, Brunner, & Kraus, 2011; Thompson, Alvy, & Lees,
2000; Trivedi, 2010; Zahra, Rawhouser, Bhawe, Neubaum, & Hayton, 2008). An increasing, but still quite small
number of specialized scientific journals, and some calls for papers , could be observed in recent years only. Starting
from 2005 with one issue per year, the Social Enterprise Journal was one of the first journals, before the Philadelphia
Social Innovation Journal started in 2009, the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship in 2010 and finally the Japan Social
Innovation Journal in 2011.
Although this increase in specialized journals indicates a growing importance of social topics in the sciences, there is
no empirical evidence yet. It is also unclear, where this kind of research is located within the academic world. Sample
questions are e.g., if social innovation research is mainly located in the non-profit area, or if it has also importance in
innovations management in the business area? Is research on social innovation, social entrepreneurship or social
enterprises furthermore “still” third sector research?
The article fills this gap, by empirically investigating, how the numbers of publications on these topics have developed
over the last years. It also analyzes the channels, where such articles are published and identifies according scientific
disciplines. Method-wise the article uses a structured literature search, among others with data base research on
EBSCO (EconLit, Business Source Premier, Academic Search Premier), Science Direct, Emerald Management Xtra
and the Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index) or back- and forward search as well as the analysis of
specialized journals (Vom Brocke et al., 2009).
With the collected data, evidence on the quick progression of the research fields can be given and trends identified.
The data furthermore clarifies, how research is evolving in various disciplines and finds focus areas and preferred
channels for publication. From these data, researchers may as well gain insight, where to best publish their research
and it becomes evident, that several research disciplines “merge” in order to work on these topics.
Alvord, S. H., Brown, L. D., & Letts, C. W. (2004). Social Entrepreneurship and societal transformation. Journal of
Applied Behavioral Science, 40(3), 260-282.
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Danko, A., & Brunner, C. (2010). Social Entrepreneurship - Zum State-of-the-Art der aktuellen Forschung. Zeitschrift
für KMU und Entrepreneurship, 58(2), 157-174.
Danko, A., Brunner, C., & Kraus, S. (2011). Social Entrepreneurship - An Overview of the Current State of Research.
European Journal of Management, 11(1), 82-90.
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Thompson, J. L., Alvy, G., & Lees, A. (2000). Social entrepreneurship – a new look at the people and the potential.
Management Decision, 38(5), 328-338.
Trivedi, C. (2010). A Social Entrepreneurship Bibliography. Journal of Entrepreneurship, 19(1), 81-85.
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the importance of rigour in documenting the literature search process. Paper presented at the 17th European
Conference on Information Systems.
Young Foundation. (2011). www.youngfoundation.org. Retrieved 18.10.2011
Zahra, S. A., Rawhouser, H. N., Bhawe, N., Neubaum, D. O., & Hayton, J. C. (2008). Globalization of Social
Entrepreneurship Opportunities. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2(2), 117-131.