To Examine Women Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Opportunities and Challenges

Year: 2019
Published in: Handbook of Research on Smart Territories and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Social Innovation and Sustainable Growth
Cited as: Nair, S. R. (2020). To Examine Women Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Opportunities and Challenges. In Palma-Ruiz, J. M., Saiz-Álvarez, J., & Herrero-Crespo, Á. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Smart Territories and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Social Innovation and Sustainable Growth (pp. 326-345). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-2097-0.ch018

In the past few decades, the concept of social entrepreneurship has emerged as a popular area of research study and practice. However, despite women social entrepreneurs showing great potentials through a reduced gender gap in social entrepreneurship unlike commercial entrepreneurship where the gender gap is found to be high, not much literature is available on women’s social entrepreneurial ventures. This study is an attempt to fill up this gap through a review of prior literature on the field of social entrepreneurship. By reviewing the existing literature, the author draws a comparison between social entrepreneurship and women social entrepreneurship, then examines the success factors in women’s social entrepreneurship and also discusses the challenges. To build-up the link between the literature and practice two real case studies are presented in support of the discussed theoretical inputs. Finally, limitations and future research areas are discussed.