Sport and Social Entrepreneurship: A Review of a Concept in Progress

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship represents a new organizational form reflecting a time of societal change. The concept of social entrepreneurship has in recent years received an increased academic interest from the field of sport management. This review therefore aims to outline the scope and focus of, as well as theoretically position, the utilization of the concept of social entrepreneurship in the current body of peer-reviewed research within the field of sport and social entrepreneurship. Thirty-three English language peer-reviewed articles were selected and analyzed using Gartner’s (1985) variables of entrepreneurship and three schools of thought within social entrepreneurship. The findings show that the scope of research into sport and social entrepreneurship is limited and that sport plays a minor role in the articles. The articles focus on the processes of social entrepreneurship, but the manner in which the concept of social entrepreneurship is used differs between articles and is seldom defined. These findings indicate that much can be done to better understand sport and social entrepreneurship. Emerging directions for future research are provided.