The challenge

The challenge for this book was to identify and ascertain some invariable principles in the social entrepreneur's approach to pressing social problems and how they bring innovative and lasting solutions that make an impact on multiple levels. Moreover, we posed the question: How do they facilitate the change process in a way that is empowering and changes “the performance capacity of the society” (from Peter Drucker's quote in the Preface).

The departure point was an overview of existing definitions of social entrepreneurship, which were then structured into a framework with five pivotal dimensions (a syndromatic model). Because the core role of the social entrepreneur is the introduction of social change, an overview of various theories of social change was presented, starting with sociology and four sociological dilemmas, one of which asks if social change is endogenous or exogenous. Social change was also presented through the lenses of psychology, ancient Greek philosophy, and some historical processes.