Social Enterprise Journal, Volume 14, Number 4

Networks, and their role in the entrepreneurial process, has been the subject of significant study in entrepreneurship literature (see for example Birley, 1986; Greve & Salaff, 2003; Newbert et al 2014). In contrast, and despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of networks for social entrepreneurs (Austin et al, 2006), social enterprises (Jenner, 2016; Lyon & Fernandez, 2012), and in wider processes of social entrepreneurship and innovation (Smith & Stephens 2010; Dufays & Huybrechts, 2014), scholarship explicitly examining social enterprise and networks, and in which relationships between them are centre stage, remains limited. Similarly, there are still few examples of social enterprise literature applying network based theories, despite identification by Dacin et al (2011) of networks and social entrepreneurship as a key area of research opportunity and theory development for scholars in the field. This ebook aims to contribute towards addressing this gap in knowledge and theory about social enterprise and networks