| Research on social entrepreneurship is increasing as is the scale and impact of social entrepreneurs in solving social problems. However, although social value creation has been identified as central to social entrepreneurship, limited research exists on social value creation from the social entrepreneur's perspective. Therefore, the problem addressed by this research is that social value creation has not been explored from the social entrepreneur's perspective, particularly in the United States. The research question was, How do social entrepreneurs perceive and describe their experience of creating social value? Data was collected using phenomenological interviews and analyzed using the modified van Kaam method. The participants were all members of a social entrepreneurship fellowship organization and have been social entrepreneurs for at least 5 years, with operations in the United States. The study tested the scope and generalizability of an existing theoretical model of social entrepreneurship by investigating six core dimensions associated with social entrepreneurs in social value creation. Because social entrepreneurship research is in its infancy, this study contributed significantly to the growing body of knowledge and was intended to benefit both academic and practitioner communities. Future researchers can study social value creation from perspectives other than the social entrepreneurs researched in this study. Additionally, future research could focus on female social entrepreneurs who make up about 40% of all social entrepreneurs. Other recommendations include finding out if experience in education or business influences social entrepreneurial decisions, and why or if living in larger cities predisposes people to social entrepreneurship. |
