Title: How social entrepreneurship emerges, develops and internationalises during political and economic transitions

Authors: Soumaya Ben Letaifa

Addresses: Department of Strategy, Université du Québec à Montréal, Succursale centre ville CP8888, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada

Abstract: Social entrepreneurship transforms communities and brings significant changes to poor and marginalised groups. However, the social process of leveraging local and global resources and scaling local initiatives to global projects needs to be better understood. This paper describes how social entrepreneurship emerges, develops and scales by using a longitudinal analysis. The study relies on qualitative data and allows comprehension of how social value is created and how social entrepreneurs mobilise an ecosystem with a diversity of actors. The findings highlight the ecosystemic vision combining top-down and bottom-up structures, the importance of social embeddedness, the social roles enacted to fulfil certain activities and the need for co-creation with end-users. The discussion provides four theoretical and managerial propositions that identify how social entrepreneurial ecosystems can be scalable and sustainable. Finally the conclusion suggests a new research agenda.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship; internationalisation ecosystems; evolution; social process; eco-neighbourhood; sustainability; political transition; economic transition; social value; sustainable development; social embeddedness; social roles; co-creation; end users.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2016.077424

European Journal of International Management, 2016 Vol.10 No.4, pp.455 - 466

Published online: 30 Jun 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article