Social Entrepreneurship: Defining the Nonprofit Behavior and Creating an Instrument for Development

Social entrepreneurship (SE) continues to garner attention in both the academic and practice communities. With increased attention comes increased scrutiny of what exactly is and is not SE. Existing conceptualizations range from nonprofit commercial activity to successful management. The lack of cohesion on social entrepreneurship has limited progression of inquiry in this area. In order to advance SE scholarship I developed a conceptualization of SE grounded in the realities of the nonprofit sector. This conceptualization is the catalytic behavior of nonprofit organizations that engenders value and change in the sector, community, and/or industry through the combination of innovation, risk-taking, and proactiveness. Using this conceptualization my research constructed, and tested a scale that can measure SE. The empirical test of the SE scale validated the behavioral conceptualization of SE established in the initial phase of this research. Additionally, SE organizations scored significantly higher than non-entrepreneurial organizations, indicating the scale was effective in recording levels of nonprofit entrepreneurial behavior.

Scott Helm, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow with the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Using his background in economics and nonprofit management, Scott has spent the last seven years working with nonprofit organizations. In this area he has assisted organizations with social entrepreneurship, program evaluation, business planning, and strategic planning.