Knowledge management and social entrepreneurship education: lessons learned from an exploratory two-country study

Abstract

Purpose Social entrepreneurship courses are among the fastest growing category of course offerings to entrepreneurship students (Brock and Kim, 2011) because both high growth potential- and steady growth-social ventures can create value and help solve social issues effectively and efficiently. As knowledge disseminators, entrepreneurship educators are in prime position to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities of students, which, in turn, increases their intentions to start a social venture and their ability to manage and grow their venture. Students gain an understanding about the role of entrepreneurship in addressing social opportunities, as well as knowledge related to starting, managing and growing social entrepreneurship ventures. This paper is divided into three parts. First, the authors broadly discuss the concept of social entrepreneurship. Second, the authors present an overview of the field of social entrepreneurship education (SEE) and its evolution. Finally, the authors supplement this review with an analytical examination of SEE, in which the authors present results of a cross-country analysis survey of over 200 entrepreneurship education programs in the USA and Canada. This paper aims to present information about: student enrollment in social entrepreneurship courses in comparison to other entrepreneurship courses; the frequency of offering social entrepreneurship courses and programs compared to other entrepreneurship courses and programs; and future trends in SEE. The results revealed a strong demand for social entrepreneurship from students, room for improvement in terms of the supply of course offerings, and a strong belief in the continued growth of social entrepreneurship. The authors conclude with suggestions about the future of SEE. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of secondary data derived from the oldest and most-frequently cited sources regarding entrepreneurship education in the USA and a novel data set examining entrepreneurship education in Canada. Both data sets were collected using an online self-report survey. Findings Demand for SEE continues to rise in both the USA and Canada. However, course and program offerings have not kept pace. Prominent trends in social entrepreneurship such as cross-campus programs and addressing the evolving demographics of students in higher education institutions need more attention. Originality/value A cross-cultural study of SEE that provides a high-level view of the state of the field today. In addition, the paper outlines the potential of the field of knowledge management for the future of SEE.

Does knowledge management explain the poor growth of social enterprises? Key insights from a systematic literature review on knowledge management and social entrepreneurship

“…Of course, some papers do not explicitly focus on how to attract, capture, retain, stock, share – in other words – or manage knowledge in entrepreneurship but we simply note that the literature on the role of knowledge during the creation process of the business remains highly prolific. More importantly, and as mentioned in the introduction of this paper, entrepreneurship is found in many different situations under different contexts, and therefore, we agree with Malsch and Guieu (2019), who claim that social entrepreneurship differs from other forms of entrepreneurship and with Solomon et al (2019), who note that students seek courses in social entrepreneurship and not entrepreneurship per se . Despite this strong difference between social entrepreneurship and other forms of entrepreneurship, we claim there might be a need to expand this SLR by integrating “knowledge management” and “entrepreneurship”, and therefore, showing in a more precise manner how KM practices differ in both approaches.…”

“…Further, in the field of social entrepreneurship, it has been shown by Campos-Climent and Sanchis-Palacio (2017) that the capacity for knowledge absorption positively impacts the creation of shared value in social enterprises in the euro-Mediterranean region. Through the analysis of North American social entrepreneurship education programmes, Solomon et al (2019) highlighted the potential of the knowledge management field and courses in social entrepreneurship education, which present a continuously high demand in the US and Canada, where it continues to rise.…”

El emprendimiento social como una competencia transversal: construcción y validación de un instrumento de valoración en el contexto universitario

“…Desde luego, Thompson, Alvy, & Lees (2000) ya abordaban una descripción critica respecto a la creación de capital social generada por emprendedores sociales, describiéndolos como líderes que identifican necesidades sociales en contextos específicos y generan los recursos para cubrirlas, del mismo modo, resaltan la relevancia del deseo interno que experimentan los emprendedores por ayudar. Recientemente los estudios en emprendimiento social ya se abordan dentro del campo de la educación, por ejemplo, Hamizan-Roslan, Hamid, Taha Ijab, & Bukhari (2019) contribuyen con datos relevantes para integrar la formación en emprendimiento social en la educación superior; del mismo modo Solomon, Alabduljader, & Ramani (2019) exponen el crecimiento en la demanda de formación en emprendimiento social por parte de estudiantes universitarios y abordan algunas tendencias respecto a la educación en emprendimiento social.…”

Promoting Social Entrepreneurial Organizations: An Empirical Study of Teacher–Student Co-entrepreneurship

“…Ashcraft et al (2019) discussed the ownership and definition of social entrepreneurship curriculums in the early stage, and put forward three development paths of social entrepreneurship curriculum: social entrepreneurship curriculums under business schools, non-profit enterprise curriculums, and mixed social entrepreneurship curriculums. Later, based on the results of cross research, compared with the opening and enrollment of business entrepreneurship education courses in the same period, Solomon et al (2019) concluded that nowadays college students have strong social entrepreneurship tendencies and a strong demand for their development status. In contrast, the supply of social entrepreneurship courses is insufficient.…”