A crisis of legitimacy: Towards stakeholders' perspectives of social entrepreneurship

This paper considers an anomaly here described as the accolades-aversion paradox of social entrepreneurship, a situation where this phenomenon is increasingly hailed as a powerful transformative intervention, yet often remains an orphaned initiative as regards funding. Considered in terms of the corporate sector, their aversion to engaging with these popular endeavours is attributed to how this phenomenon is currently 'marketed', wherein it is suggested that current portrayals (unintentionally) promote the perception that social entrepreneurship is 'legitimacy challenged'. This paper suggests a means of addressing this situation by better attending the neglected feature of 'social impact' through employing tools and techniques accepted by corporates as robust and appropriate for such undertakings.