ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Social Entrepreneurship: International and cross-cultural innovation

Call for papers

Entrepreneurship and Regional Development announces the call for papers for a special
issue on ‘Social Entrepreneurship: International and cross-cultural innovation’. The
deadline for submissions is December 31, 2007.

Entrepreneurship and Regional Development provides a multi-disciplinary forum for

researchers and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurship and small firm
development and for those studying and developing the local and the regional context,
in which entrepreneurs emerge, innovate, and establish the new economic activities,
which drive economic growth and create new economic wealth and employment. The
journal focuses on the diverse and complex characteristics of local and regional
economies, which lead to entrepreneurial vitality and endow the large and small firms
within them with international competitiveness. Entrepreneurship and Regional
Development is included in the ISI citation index.

Past research
The special edition of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development is intended to identify
progression and development in matters arising from a prior special issue (16: 3) on
‘Entrepreneurship in society: exploring and theorising new forms and practices of
entrepreneurship’. In that issue, the editors Chris Steyaert and Jerome Katz identified
the following in entrepreneurship research:

• the discussion for the space of entrepreneurship in society has been opened up,
by the authors (2004), by focusing on geographical, discursive and social
dimensions of entrepreneurship, as well as expanded on, by Johnstone and
Lionais (2004) through their article on community business entrepreneurship,
which is conceptualized as the entrepreneurial process that can be modified to
pursue community goals.
• Two related questions: what spaces/discourses/stakeholders have been
identified in entrepreneurship research up to now and which can be considered
for later in terms of the above dimensions

Special issue: Social Entrepreneurship: International and cross-cultural innovation

The proposed special issue will address the above issues, but also develop further
understanding of the subject pertaining to social entrepreneurship which concerns
international, cross cultural and innovation aspects. The proposed special issue builds

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on and complements the aforementioned special issue edited by Steyart and Katz (2004)
in the following ways:
• Spells out clearly the need to study in-depth a cross cultural dimension, therefore
‘operationalising’ the notion of different ‘spaces’ and the need to turn to cultural
studies to further conceptualise and explore entrepreneurship (p183)
• Builds on and furthers the discussion on economic entrepreneurship, by
differentiating from, and complementing it with, social entrepreneurship. There
is a clear debate on the topic (p 186) (Deetz, 2004 , Chell, 2006 , Chell, Karatas
Ozkan, Nicolopoulou, 2006)
• ‘Operationalises’ several of the ‘social issues’ referred to in the previous special
issue, as key topics in the agenda of social entrepreneurship, such as the need to
‘tie in’ entrepreneurship with social, cultural, civic, ecological, and artistic
considerations (p 193; 181) )
• Introduces two further ‘nuances’ of the discursive dimension of
entrepreneurship, namely the innovation and cross cultural ones (p 185)
• Introduces another dimension in terms of the geography, such as the concept of
innovative regions with social sensitivity ( p 181) (see above)

It is worth noting three interacting sets of factors have influenced the development of
social enterprises internationally: demand side factors (i.e. public wanting services from
social enterprises as customers), supply side factors (essentially the supply of social
entrepreneurs), and contextual and institutional factors impacting on the relation
between the two (Spear, 2006). Amin et al (2002) have stressed that international
differences in social enterprises reflect differences in welfare systems, in political and
institutional contexts. Given the values that social enterprises exemplify - enterprise,
innovation, competitiveness and social inclusion - (Defourny, 2001; DTI, 2002), social
enterprises aim to create social value rather than personal wealth for the leader-
manager (Chell, 2004, forthcoming). However, social enterprises are also faced with the
challenge to seek business solutions to social problems (Thompson and Doherty, 2006);
and become and remain sustainable if they are to deliver maximum value along all three
aspects of the ‘triple bottom line’, which refers to the creation of financial, social and
environmental value for the benefit of the community and wider social world. This
highlights the ways in which a business model for enterprise could be built to account
for those three aspects and thereby create ‘social value’ in order to ensure sustainability.
In order to do that, social enterprises need to foster innovation as a response to the
challenges they are facing. In this particular context, the working definition of
innovation would include innovation in outlook, behaviours, strategy and operations.
The special issue aims to address in more detail, various aspects that define innovation
for social enterprise from a number of perspectives (policy-making, organisational
features, competences for social entrepreneurship, as well as the socio-economic context
in which social enterprises exhibit their innovative capacities, such as the stakeholders’
network of a social enterprise, which can be national or international).

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Aims of the special issue:
In this special issue, we seek to identify the following:
• What are the different models for social enterprise; and how do they differ from
economic enterprises?
• What constitutes innovation in social enterprises and social entrepreneurship?
• What is the relationship between innovation and the triple bottom line in terms
of social enterprises?
• How can innovative practices be cross-fertilised between social enterprises? And
possibly between them and other sectors?
• What are the new skills that people in social enterprises need to build in order to
foster and sustain innovation?
• How does policy making sustain the core attributes of social
entrepreneurship/does it sustain the development of innovative approaches?
• How do the above differ in different socioeconomic contexts? What other
characteristic have been shown to be relevant?
• How can a cross-cultural perspective shed light to the above processes?
• What are the best practices that can be shared from different socioeconomic and
cross-cultural perspectives?
• In understanding social entrepreneurship how can we shift the emphasis from
structured entrepreneurial activities taking place in research parks, clusters and
incubation centres to more spontaneous, emergent and complex forms in
brownfield sites, urban and industrial regeneration areas?
• Methodologically, what are the benefits and shortcomings of interpretivist, social
constructionist, structurationist and postmodern approaches in shedding light to
the complex phenomenon of social entrepreneurship?

We would be particularly interested in attracting papers that address the concept of the
‘paradox’ of innovative regions with a social sensitivity. India and Finland could be two
countries with regions exemplifying this, in that they embrace globally competitive
regions, whilst at the same time they exhibit the social conditions and systems which
foster the development of social entrepreneurship. An exploration between the two
aspects of this seemingly ‘paradoxical’ phenomenon would be highly desirable as the
focus of some work for this special issue.

We welcome both empirical, theoretical and policy papers offering key issues or
comprehensive frameworks on the subject. As Entrepreneurship and Regional Development
is widely read by an academic and business audience, all submissions should include
implications for policy makers and practitioners.

Process for the submission of papers

Papers submitted must not have been published/accepted for publication or presently
be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should be about 6000-
8000 words in length, copies should be submitted by email word attachment (in one file

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including all figures and tables) to the special issue editors. The first page must contain
the title, author(s) and contact information for the contact author. If a paper does not
make use of the journal’s appropriate style format, the paper is not sent out for review.
For additional guidelines, please see the ‘Instructions for Authors’ from a recent issue of
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development or visit
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/tepnauth.asp.
Papers suitable for publication will be subjected to a double-blind review; hence authors
should not identify themselves in the body of the paper.

Please address questions to the special issue editors:

Guest editors
Professor Elizabeth Chell*, Dr Katerina Nicolopoulou**, Dr Mine Karatas-Ozkan**

*Small Business Research Centre

Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames
Surrey, KT2 7LB, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 208 54 77 247
Fax: +44 (0) 208 54 77140
E-mail: e.chell@kingston.ac.uk

**School of Management
University of Southampton, Highfield
Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 2380 598973
Fax: +44 (0) 2380 593844
E-mail: kn3@soton.ac.uk
E-mail: mko@soton.ac.uk