Social entrepreneurship and sustainable development: The Yiwu case

Social entrepreneurship is an important driving force for sustainable development. One existing problem with the current literature is that it is not fully clear under what conditions social entrepreneurship can promote sustainable economic, social, and environmental developments. The research evidence is even less in developing and emerging economies like China. Once an impoverished area, Yiwu has gone through a unique evolution path and developed into one of China’s top 10 wealthiest counties and a model city for sustainable development. In this study, based on a multilevel perspective and through analyzing objective statistical records and public archive data in Yiwu, we trace social entrepreneurship and sustainable development in Yiwu in recent decades. We make numerous theoretical contributions to social entrepreneurship and sustainable development literature. We identify the key factors and explore the roles of social entrepreneurship in promoting sustainable development in Yiwu. We discuss theoretical implications for social entrepreneurship specifically and entrepreneurship in general and make future research recommendations for our framework. Overall, we broaden and deepen the research on social entrepreneurship and sustainable development in an emerging economy.