The Social Entrepreneur: Genesis of a new concept and main definitions

Abstract

Individuals who understand the fundamental problems of the society, who have a clear vision of how to solve them, who are able to form a team and dare to experiment and care about solving social problems more than their personal profit, are necessary for the economic and social development of our societies. These agents, different from traditional entrepreneurs, carriers of social innovation  and called “social entrepreneurs”, are not the subject of an abundant research and must therefore be recognized, understood and identified. This article is based on a literature review of the concept of the social entrepreneur in order to understand the genesis of this concept and to identify the main definitions published in the literature. The objective being to identify the existing controversies relating to this context and to be able to adopt a broader and more complete definition of the social entrepreneur.