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Chapter 2
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5687-9.ch002
ABSTRACT
The needs of communities are endless and unlimited like the needs of individuals. Societies have to meet
their reasonable set of unlimited needs to sustain their continuity. Otherwise, social problems become
unsolvable and these problems that become unsolvable can be sources of other problems. In this sense,
social enterprises are the institutions that have emerged in order to meet the needs of the society and
to solve the problems. The close relation of social enterprises with society and social structure and the
“social” expression in the concept make it necessary to look at social entrepreneurship from a sociologi-
cal perspective. In this direction, the aim of this chapter is intended to create a sociological perspective
on social entrepreneurship that aims to contribute to social order and welfare rather than commercial
entrepreneurship serving the purpose of individual or organizational interest in economic sense. In
the context of sociological perspective, social problem, social beneft, social mission and vision, social
value, social capital, and fnally, social change and transformation concepts and their relation with
social entrepreneurship are examined.
INTRODUCTION
Unlike an entrepreneur who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of an enterprise (Merriam-
Webster, 2017), social entrepreneurs are seen as people who have vision for social change and who have
financial resources to support their ideas (Schuyler, 1998). Social entrepreneurs have gained the trust
of the society by acting in a sensitive and realistic way to remedy the problem realizing the problems of
the society they are in and being disturbed by the situation (Betil, 2010). Compared to traditional entre-
Social Value and Sociological
Perspective on Social
Entrepreneurship
Abdullah Yilmaz
Selcuk University, Turkey
Hande Ulukapi Yilmaz
Selcuk University, Turkey