Social Impact in Social Entrepreneurship: Conceptualization, Manifestation, and Measurement

This dissertation addresses significant ambiguities in the concept of social impact within social entrepreneurship comprising three interrelated articles. The first article establishes a clear theoretical framework by identifying and contrasting two primary scholarly schools of thought regarding social impact—utility and perception—through a systematic integrative review. Employing qualitative comparative methods, the second article extends beyond traditional definitional debates to empirically develop a typology of social enterprises based on their extra-organizational outcomes across diverse global contexts. The third article employs regression analysis to examine the drivers influencing nascent social enterprises to measure social impact, particularly focusing on imprinted innovativeness and social imprinting. Collectively, these articles provide a scaffolded exploration of social impact, from its theoretical roots to its practical implications, within the dynamic context of social entrepreneurship.