Social Entrepreneurship as ‘Doing Good’ by Mitigating Opposition Better

We complement emerging theory-building in social entrepreneurship by adopting a new perspective. We start with the assumption that the existence of opposing interests is the main reason that things that should have been done to improve social welfare have not been done. We then draw on economic concepts and logical reasoning to build a typology of problems relevant to the goal of improving social welfare. Determining the solutions to those problem types identifies which forces are likely to oppose their implementation. From that basis, we describe which characteristics would be helpful, and which wouldn’t, for providing the solutions while also mitigating the likely opposition. That analysis provides the basis to argue, that for specific problems, social entrepreneurs are likely to embody a relatively better set of characteristics (versus, for example, a local governmental agency). We then discuss the implications for research, management and policy.