Tracing the evolution of ecosystems in social entrepreneurship: Perspectives on innovation and sustainability
Social enterprises with the dual mission of creating social impact and achieving financial sustainability are increasingly recognized as a transformative approach to addressing global challenges. Exploring the role of entrepreneurial ecosystems in fostering social enterprises could serve as a key ap...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Sustainable Futures |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666188825002138 |
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| Summary: | Social enterprises with the dual mission of creating social impact and achieving financial sustainability are increasingly recognized as a transformative approach to addressing global challenges. Exploring the role of entrepreneurial ecosystems in fostering social enterprises could serve as a key approach, but it remains underexplored. This study intends to explore the nexus between social entrepreneurship (SE) and entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) to uncover the developments and key trends. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric literature review of 374 publications spanning from 1981 to 2024 sourced from the SCOPUS database. Using software such as VOSviewer, R, Gephi and SciMAT, we explore the collaboration networks, influential works, thematic clusters and evolution of the topic. The findings reveal an exponential increase in academic contributions in recent years. The keyword co-occurrence analysis identifies six thematic clusters, each reflecting distinct aspects of ecosystems. Evolutionary analysis across four distinct time periods reveals a dynamic shift in research focus from foundational topics like sustainability and community development to advanced themes such as hybrid business models, digital platforms and crisis management. Strategic diagrams further classify these themes based on their density and centrality, identifying key motor themes such as social innovation, incubation and scaling as critical drivers of future research. The study links its findings to key challenges in social enterprise scaling, which include resource optimization, stakeholder engagement and integration of economic and social objectives. |
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| ISSN: | 2666-1888 |