There are two schools of thought on what exactly social entrepreneurship is. In truth, it’s a bit of both. There is the Enterprise Development School (U.S. dominant model) and the Innovation & Systems Change School.

• Focus: Starting new businesses (nonprofits, for-profits, or hybrids) to solve social problems.
• Key figures: Greg Dees helped frame this view in U.S. institutions.
• Common activities: Business plan competitions, venture funding, scalable startup models.
• Critique: May overemphasize the role of the individual entrepreneur and the business form, sometimes neglecting systemic root causes.

Innovation & Systems Change School

• Focus: Identifying and spreading innovative solutions to entrenched problems — not necessarily through founding a new company.
• Key figures: Daniela Papi-Thornton, Ashoka Fellows, Bornstein’s examples from around the world.
• Core idea: Social entrepreneurship is about changing how the system operates — laws, norms, behaviors, networks, power.
• Common roles: Bridge-builders, intrapreneurs, movement catalysts, researchers, educators.

The second school of though aims to enable the conditions for many ventures and changemakers to emerge, collaborate, and adapt more effectively. It’s about identifying relationships and what is working, and identifying any gaps in the system. The social entrepreneur, instead of starting a new business, may simply assist or facilitate new parnerships. The second school is also about sharing knowledge.