A short note on entrepreneurship as method: A social enterprise perspective

Recent work by Sarasvathy and Venkataraman (Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 113-135, 2011) suggest that entrepreneurship may offer an alternative to the scientific method in solving some of the increasingly complex problems facing modern society. This paper adopts an entrepreneurial method framework to explore how social enterprises (SEs) can more efficiently and effectively provide goods and services to the needy. SEs have the potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness by innovating new products, processes, strategies, and/or business models to better meet their beneficiaries' needs. Three case studies of SEs are used to explore the process and the outcomes of the entrepreneurial method. In addition, propositions are developed to illustrate the social and economic performance advantages of SEs and offer managerial implications for enhanced practice. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.