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Social Entrepreneurship’s Solutionism Problem

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  • Dominic Chalmers

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has developed as an important area of theory and practice over the past three decades. Despite a broad consensus that it is a desirable method for addressing social and environmental problems, I argue it may instead have a negative societal impact as it reduces the pressure for ambitious legislation and institutional reforms that have more scope to effect change. Social entrepreneurs themselves are prone to a form of ‘solutionism’ in which they believe complex social problems can be addressed neatly through the apparatus of the entrepreneur, something I argue is ineffectual and inappropriate for tackling many of the deep‐seated and essentially ‘public’ structural problems we face. I offer some suggestions as to how researchers can provide some critical balance to theories of social entrepreneurship, specifically through better demarcating when social entrepreneurship is an optimal mechanism for addressing social problems, and when public policy may be preferable.

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  • Dominic Chalmers, 2021. "Social Entrepreneurship’s Solutionism Problem," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 1363-1370, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:58:y:2021:i:5:p:1363-1370
    DOI: 10.1111/joms.12676
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Albert Hyunbae Cho, 2006. "Politics, Values and Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Appraisal," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Johanna Mair & Jeffrey Robinson & Kai Hockerts (ed.), Social Entrepreneurship, chapter 4, pages 34-56, Palgrave Macmillan.
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    Cited by:

    1. Julie Guthman & Michaelanne Butler, 2023. "Fixing food with a limited menu: on (digital) solutionism in the agri-food tech sector," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 835-848, September.
    2. Jianing Dong & Xiao Wang & Xuanwei Cao & David Higgins, 2022. "More Prosocial, More Ephemeral? The Role of Work-Related Wellbeing and Gender in Incubating Social Entrepreneurs’ Exit Intention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Healy, John & Hughes, Jeffrey & Donnelly-Cox, Gemma & Shantz, Amanda, 2024. "A long and winding road: The hard graft of scaling social change in complex systems," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    4. Koehne, Florian & Woodward, Richard & Honig, Benson, 2022. "The potentials and perils of prosocial power: Transnational social entrepreneurship dynamics in vulnerable places," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).

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