Constructing Social Change In Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

A concern for the health of social and ecological systems drives this dissertation; we are specifically concerned about grand challenges, referring to social problems at a global scale that are seemingly entrenched with no foreseeable solutions. This dissertation aims to expand an understanding of social entrepreneurship’s role in addressing grand challenges. In this regard, many researchers have explored how social entrepreneurship can serve the public good (Vedula et al., 2022). While the literature on social entrepreneurship directed at public good is valuable, it tends to focus on using market-based activities to ‘solve problems’ (Chalmers, 2020) and create social value. However, social value creation is distinct from social change (Hietschold, et al., 2023). Unlike value creation, social change transforms the ‘social’ dimension by altering the ‘beliefs, attitudes, and meanings’ underpinning social problems at a systemic level (Stephan et al., 2016).
Inspired by social entrepreneurship literature on ‘deep positive social change’ (Stephan et al., 2016), this dissertation seeks to expand an understanding of social entrepreneurship’s role in social change. As our overarching research question, we ask ‘how does the construction of social change emerge and evolve in social entrepreneurship?’. To address our overall question, we draw on social constructionism to synthesise the findings in the dissertation’s empirical chapters and draw insights on how social entrepreneurship’s role in constructing social change, where social entrepreneurs are market-actors as well as sociocultural, political actors advocating for deep positive social change (Mair and Rathert, 2024). Through our empirical findings and theoretical contributions, we offer new insights into the role of ideology, narrative, and accountability in constructing and reconstructing social change in ways that go beyond the yoke of heroic rhetoric and markets.