Scholars and policy makers have long recognized entrepreneurship as a powerful engine of economic growth. There is clear evidence, however, that when it comes to social entrepreneurship, policy attention has not been matched by growth in scholarly research. This volume illustrates the type of empirical effort that must take place for the field to advance.

Microfinance is regarded as a lynchpin in private sector solutions to a host of complex social challenges, from child labor, education, and women's rights, through to sustainable local economic development. The principle of self-help through capital accumulation in the US inner city looks similar to that of a Peruvian slum, and as practice has grown, so has the research. Conversations and Empirical Evidence in Microfinance is a curated conversation from a comprehensive review of the published literature, and is supported by theory and evidence from a wide range of disciplines such as...

Academic entrepreneurship is a multifactorial and multidimensional phenomenon. This book presents research featuring aspects of academic entrepreneurship at the regional, institutional, and organizational levels of analysis. Phillip H. Phan and the authors illustrate that the more interesting aspects of this subject are in the 'tails of the distribution, ' where counter-intuitive findings from the data call simple theories into question and inspire a vigorous discussion of alternatives.

The rapid and formative rise in research on social innovation and entrepreneurship means that theoretical frameworks are still being created, while traditional notions of economic efficiency and social welfare are tested. The field is progressing fastest in the measurement and measuring of social entrepreneurial effectiveness. Social innovators, who draw from philanthropy, as well as capital markets, for financial resources, have adopted the lean start up as a paradigm for their organization logics. This collection showcases the myriad emerging philosophical, methodological, and...