TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding opportunities in social entrepreneurship
T2 - a critical realist abstraction
AU - Hu, Xiaoti
AU - Marlow, Susan
AU - Zimmermann , Angelika
AU - Martin, Lee
AU - Frank, Regina
PY - 2020/9
Y1 - 2020/9
N2 - This article extends social entrepreneurship (SE) research by drawing upon a critical realist perspective to analyse dynamic structure/agency relations in SE opportunity emergence, illustrated by empirical evidence. Our findings demonstrate an agential aspect (opportunity actualisation following a path-dependent seeding-growing-shaping process) and a structural aspect (institutional, cognitive and embedded structures necessary for SE opportunity emergence) related to SE opportunities. These structures provide three boundary conditions for SE agency: institutional discrimination, an SE belief system and social feasibility. Within this article, we develop a novel theoretical framework to analyse SE opportunities plus, an applicable tool to advance related empirical research.
AB - This article extends social entrepreneurship (SE) research by drawing upon a critical realist perspective to analyse dynamic structure/agency relations in SE opportunity emergence, illustrated by empirical evidence. Our findings demonstrate an agential aspect (opportunity actualisation following a path-dependent seeding-growing-shaping process) and a structural aspect (institutional, cognitive and embedded structures necessary for SE opportunity emergence) related to SE opportunities. These structures provide three boundary conditions for SE agency: institutional discrimination, an SE belief system and social feasibility. Within this article, we develop a novel theoretical framework to analyse SE opportunities plus, an applicable tool to advance related empirical research.
KW - China
KW - context
KW - critical realism
KW - opportunities
KW - social entrepreneurship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074328063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1042258719879633
DO - 10.1177/1042258719879633
M3 - Article
SN - 1042-2587
VL - 44
SP - 1032
EP - 1056
JO - Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
JF - Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
IS - 5
ER -