Academic Social Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Reflection from Schumpeter’s Economic Sociology
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Economic Sociology as a Lens for Studying Entrepreneurship
2.1. Economic Sociology Contribution to the Comprehension of the Economic Process
2.2. Entrepreneurship as a Field of Study in Economic Sociology
3. Current Overlaps for a New Type of Entrepreneur
3.1. Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation
3.2. Academic Entrepreneurship
4. Academic Social Entrepreneurship: A Perspective Inspired by Schumpeterian Notes
- Motivations—Academic social entrepreneurs have complex motivations centered on a sense of mission and social value to create social change. In academic work, the entrepreneurial function is performed by the individual researcher or the research team and by other social actors with a stake in the social challenge.
- Social Innovations and New Knowledge Combinations—academic social entrepreneurs combine their scientific knowledge and technical skills to address pressing challenges for society introducing combination of new products, methods, markets, sources of raw materials, forms of organization, finance and legal forms. On debates on the concept of social innovation this is often expressed as both a product and a process that transforms social and power relations.
- Resistance and Context—Academic social entrepreneurs also face resistance to their endeavors, stemming from habits, traditions, routines, institutions, and social orders, both within academic institutions and the external organizations they are trying to affect. This resistance, often tied to institutional inertia, can be a major barrier to implementing innovations.
- Social Value—Social change at local, national, and international levels often involves creating new organizations, institutions, and/or laws that help achieve innovation and economic and social value. Whereas economic value is often expressed in profit, social value is related, ultimately, to social change.
- Systemic transformation—The parallel to the concept of creative destruction within a social innovation framework is the idea of systemic transformation, in the sense that social innovations have an effect in changing social structures and therefore contribute to societal evolution.
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Mainstream Economics | Economic Sociology | |
---|---|---|
Protagonist | The individual agent | Interplay between actors, groups, institutions |
Economic action | The actor has a certain set of preferences and will choose the one that maximizes utility (rational action) | Various possible types of economic action |
Choice | Rational action as the efficient use of scarce resources | The view is broader and more comprehensive |
Focus | Market exchange | The economic process is embedded in an organic way within society |
Objectives of analysis | Formal approaches focused on predicting behavior | Descriptive and theoretical analyses |
Methodological approaches | Formal models focused on mathematics and statistical methods | A greater variety of methods, such as observation, analysis of qualitative data, among others |
Intellectual inspirations | Neoclassical economics, showing a clear distinction between the study of the economy, the current economic theory, and the history of economic thought | Sociological traditions and theories to explain the economy, pluralism, and overlap with other disciplinary areas such as social studies of science or political economy |
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Pinto, H.; Sampaio, F.; Ferreira, S.; Elston, J. Academic Social Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Reflection from Schumpeter’s Economic Sociology. Businesses 2024, 4, 723-737. https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses4040040
Pinto H, Sampaio F, Ferreira S, Elston J. Academic Social Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Reflection from Schumpeter’s Economic Sociology. Businesses. 2024; 4(4):723-737. https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses4040040
Chicago/Turabian StylePinto, Hugo, Fábio Sampaio, Sílvia Ferreira, and Jennifer Elston. 2024. "Academic Social Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Reflection from Schumpeter’s Economic Sociology" Businesses 4, no. 4: 723-737. https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses4040040
APA StylePinto, H., Sampaio, F., Ferreira, S., & Elston, J. (2024). Academic Social Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Reflection from Schumpeter’s Economic Sociology. Businesses, 4(4), 723-737. https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses4040040