Social entrepreneurship refers to the use of entrepreneurial methods, such as risk taking, innovation, and team building, to bring about positive social change, typically with extremely scarce resources. The concept of social entrepreneurship has emerged in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors over the last decade, and interest in social entrepreneurship continues to grow. The nonprofit sector—the conventional locus for social change—faces diminishing funding from traditional sources and increased competition for these scarce resources. At the same time, concerns about the concentration of wealth in the private sector have spurred calls for corporate social responsibility and more proactive responses to complex social problems. Meanwhile governments at all levels grapple with multiple demands on public funds.

In light of this, social entrepreneurship has emerged as an innovative ...