Social Entrepreneurship as a Scientific Category

Abstract

As a relatively new phenomenon in Russia, social entrepreneurship is undergoing the scientific understanding and the formation of a conceptual apparatus. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the author’s vision of the social entrepreneurship essence and its representation in definitions. The meaning of social entrepreneurship determines the expediency of its understanding in a broad and narrow interpretation. In a narrow intepretation, it is proposed to define it as the entrepreneurial activity of medium-sized and small businesses aimed at achieving socially useful goals, contributing to solving social problems of citizens and society. In a broad sense, social entrepreneurship includes what its narrow meaning implies, as well as socially oriented activities of commercial enterprises; social activities of non-profit organizations, charitable foundations; informal social entrepreneurship, including patronage. In this case, social entrepreneurship is an organizational and economic activity aimed at solving social problems of society or its individual categories based on the entrepreneurial approach.