Purpose

Social entrepreneurs (SEs) often face various challenges whereby they rely on the support of others to realize their objectives. In this context, ecosystem thinking is very helpful to understand how various stakeholders can assist SEs. The purpose of this paper is to develop a classification of the different types of support that third parties can provide to SEs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have developed the arguments in this paper based on a literature review of 258 articles on ecosystem thinking and social entrepreneurship. Articles have been retrieved from the Web of Science database, using as search parameters on the one hand publications in top journals, and on the other articles with more than 60 citations. In addition, the authors have received recommendations for relevant good-quality articles following a snowball procedure.

Findings

This paper contributes by distinguishing three support categories for SEs – fuel, hardware and DNA – based on what we know from ecosystem thinking. This paper elaborates on the building blocks of each support category, points at the relevant actors and discusses the interrelatedness across support categories.

Research limitations/implications

The three support categories are developed by building on predominantly ecosystem literature. This study implies that the scalability of SEs’ social impact does not only depend on their strengths but also on how well they are supported.

Practical implications

The three support categories are complementary to the strengths of individual SEs. SEs can therefore start with what they have, and then gradually expand their support structure by surrounding themselves with stakeholders that can assist them with fuel, infrastructure and DNA.

Originality/value

Social enterprise theories have elaborated on the various challenges that SEs face. Lack of resources, lack of staff, lack of professional management, underdeveloped networks and mission drift are seen as the most pressing. Although the relevant literature does rightly point out the indispensable support of others, it does so without differentiating between the kinds of support that can help SEs increase their social impact. This paper offers to remedy this by creating three separate support categories: fuel, hardware and DNA.

中文翻译：

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支持社会企业家的生态系统：文献综述

目的

社会企业家 (SE) 经常面临各种挑战，他们依靠他人的支持来实现自己的目标。在这种情况下，生态系统思维非常有助于了解各种利益相关者如何帮助社会企业。本文的目的是对第三方可以向社会企业提供的不同类型的支持进行分类。

设计/方法/方法

作者基于对 258 篇关于生态系统思维和社会创业的文章的文献综述，提出了本文的论点。文章是从 Web of Science 数据库中检索到的，一方面用作搜索参数，一方面用作顶级期刊的出版物，另一方面用作引用超过 60 次的其他文章。此外，作者还收到了按照滚雪球程序推荐的相关优质文章。

发现

本文根据我们从生态系统思维中了解到的知识，区分了对 SE 的三个支持类别——燃料、硬件和 DNA。本文详细阐述了每个支持类别的构建块，指向相关参与者并讨论了支持类别之间的相互关联。

研究限制/影响

这三个支持类别是在主要建立在生态系统文献的基础上发展起来的。这项研究表明，社企社会影响的可扩展性不仅取决于他们的实力，还取决于他们得到的支持程度。

实际影响

这三个支持类别是对个别 SE 的优势的补充。因此，社企可以从他们所拥有的开始，然后逐渐扩大他们的支持结构，让利益相关者围绕他们自己，这些利益相关者可以在燃料、基础设施和 DNA 方面为他们提供帮助。

原创性/价值

社会企业理论详细阐述了社企面临的各种挑战。资源匮乏、人员匮乏、缺乏专业管理、网络不发达和任务漂移被视为最紧迫的问题。尽管相关文献确实正确地指出了他人不可或缺的支持，但它并没有区分可以帮助社企提高社会影响的支持类型。本文通过创建三个独立的支持类别来解决这个问题：燃料、硬件和 DNA。