Entrepreneurship for the Public Good: A Review, Critique, and Path Forward for Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship Research

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is routinely promoted as a solution to our most pressing societal and environmental challenges, a means to address issues ranging from poverty to human-induced climate change. Two emerging literature streams have sought to examine how and when such solutions may emerge. In this review we examine the literature on social (SE) and environmental (EE) entrepreneurship to expose potential linkages, disconnects, and a path forward. We do so by combining bibliometric network analysis with a detailed qualitative review of the literature from 1994 to 2019. Through this process we: 1) identify a pattern of convergent evolution, whereby SE and EE share some common elements today, while originating in distinct scholarly communities with different epistemological roots, 2) offer a conceptual framework that identifies specific areas for collaboration and learning between SE and EE, and 3) propose how these streams can be integrated, to elevate the impact of the field of entrepreneurship. We argue that such an integration can enable entrepreneurship research to fulfill its promise of understanding how and when entrepreneurial action contributes to the public good.