Capturing social value: an empirical contribution to theory-making and practice in social entrepreneurship

As a society we have recently heard about the Buffet and Gates Foundation intentions. Coupled with this are the claims that poverty, hunger and treatable illness can be relieved, albeit on a grand scale. Conversely, the research community has been slow to capture social value in a comprehensible form. Volunteers have always created social value, but the elements which contribute to this have been unexplained. Austin, Stevenson and Wei-Skillern (2006) drew from extant 'for-profit' theory to build a bridgehead across to theory-making about Social Entrepreneurship. This paper offers empirical data which is necessary if Social Entrepreneurship theory-making is to proceed.