Abstract
This paper extends social entrepreneurship (SE) research by drawing upon a critical realist perspective to analyse dynamic structure/agency relations in SE opportunity emergence, illustrated by empirical evidence. Our findings demonstrate an agential aspect (opportunity actualisation following a path-dependent seeding-growing-shaping process) and a structural aspect (institutional, cognitive and embedded structures necessary for SE opportunity emergence) related to SE opportunities. These structures provide three boundary conditions for SE agency: institutional discrimination, an SE belief system and social feasibility. Within this paper, we develop a novel theoretical framework to analyse SE opportunities plus, an applicable tool to advance related empirical research.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 0 |
Pages (from-to) | 1032-1056 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 13 Oct 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2020 |
Keywords
- social entrepreneurship
- critical realism,
- China
- context
- opportunity