Returning the ‘social’ to social entrepreneurship: Future possibilities of critically exploring sport for development and peace and social entrepreneurship

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is a nascent concept within academia that is increasing in scholarly attention and practice, especially within the study of sport. A recent article has reviewed the concept of social entrepreneurship (SE) and sport and offered suggestions for future studies. Building on this article, I suggest that there is a need for critical, sociological explorations of sport and SE, most especially for scholars within the field of sport for development and peace (SDP). In this article, a review of SE and sport is briefly provided, as well as a presentation of recent critical perspectives on SE. Drawing attention to the connections between SDP and critical studies of SE, I suggest that there is an opportunity for sociologists of SDP to further understand the complex relations and neoliberal power structures involved in SDP social change, sustainability, innovation, and donor-recipient relations that would contribute significant insights for the future of the field.

What Does Entrepreneurship Add to the Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility Management in Sport?

“…Entrepreneurship theory, and more specifically CSE, is a timely and interesting lens to study CSR management as it entails an innovative and transformational perspective (McSweeney, 2020). Other than the usual static models used in CSR research, the CSE model enables a more dynamic conception of social responsibility in which multiple interrelated drivers and levels (i.e., individual, organizational, stakeholder) influence the process and, thus, the outcome.…”

“…This study combines the aforementioned concepts and uses CSE (i.e., "the process of extending the organization's domain of competence and corresponding opportunity set through innovative leveraging of resources, both within and outside its direct control, aimed at the simultaneous creation of economic and social value"; Austin, Leonard, Reficco, & Wei-Skillern, 2005, p. 170) to increase the understanding of the process behind strategic CSR management in professional sport. While entrepreneurship theory is increasingly applied to sport (Bjärsholm, 2017, McSweeney, 2020, Ratten & Babiak, 2010, Ratten (2019) expressed the need for the development and recognition of theoretical frameworks specific to the sector. Moreover, most (sport management) research drawing on entrepreneurship is conducted from an individual perspective (Bjärsholm, 2017).…”

“…The intrapreneur. As intrapreneurs, CSR managers should be change agents who carry out entrepreneurial behavior while generating social value (McSweeney, 2020). Austin and Reficco (2009, p. 88) defined intrapreneurs as "individuals within the enterprise who are focused on fostering and bringing about the internal organizational transformation and innovation that moves the organization to a more advanced state of CSR."…”

Organizational capacity and entrepreneurial behavior

“…As Schulenkorf () has argued “entrepreneurship promises to play an increasingly important role in [SDP] practice and research, especially given the challenge of many [SDP] projects to sustain themselves beyond the time of external funding” (p. 248). However, research into the relationship between SDP and entrepreneurship is limited to a handful of studies of social entrepreneurship in single organizations (e.g., Cohen & Welty Peachey, ; Hayhurst, ), conceptual work highlighting the importance of social entrepreneurship perspectives in SDP research (e.g., McSweeney, ), and studies on nonprofit/for‐profit hybridization in the field (Svensson & Seifried, ). None of these studies, however, has provided empirical insight on what may differentiate entrepreneurial SDP organizations from their peers in the SDP field.…”

Innovation in sport for development and peace

“…Furthermore, understanding the concept of nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs (Andersson, 2017) could provide a useful framework for better understanding innovation from the moment when someone develops the intention to create their own SDP organization. At the same time, more work is also needed to advance knowledge around social entrepreneurship in SDP considering this is a rapidly growing concept both in academia and practice (Cohen & Welty Peachey, 2015;McSweeney, 2018).…”