Social Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics

<p>Social entrepreneurs are change makers that aim to solve society’s unsolved problems. Not surprisingly social entrepreneurship has thus created high expectations. To better understand the potential as well as the limitations of social entrepreneurship however a more nuanced approach is needed in two ways. </p><p>First social entrepreneurship is a multi-level phenomenon. It spans macro-level questions as well as meso-level questions and finally micro-level questions. If we really want to understand social entrepreneurship we need to bring together all three levels of analysis and see how they are connected. </p><p>Second while social entrepreneurship can certainly produce socially desirable outcomes we also need a critical perspective to capture potential undesirable effects that social entrepreneurship can cause often unintendedly in society in markets in organizations and for individuals. To this end an ethical perspective can help complement the positive analysis of social entrepreneurship with a discussion of the normative implications of its potential dark side.</p><p>Looking at social entrepreneurship from both a multi-level analysis and an ethical perspective <i>Social Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics</i> takes the reader on a journey through the bright side as well as the potential dark side of social entrepreneurship for societies organizations and individuals. Highlighting both this book not only seeks to provoke researchers and students to advance their understanding of social entrepreneurship. It also hopes to help practitioners to better realize the positive contributions of social entrepreneurship for society.</p>