A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SOCIAL INNOVATION CLUSTER: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

This study proposes a conceptual framework for understanding Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation Cluster. First, it presents a structural analysis of the emerging processes of social entrepreneurship in Japan, and then shows how social enterprises establish organizational strategies and promote social innovation. In analyzing the emergence of social entrepreneurship, we have reviewed its relationship with the community, government, civil society organizations and businesses by incorporating Network Theory and Cluster Theory. We have not focused on individual characteristics, but on the relationship between social entrepreneurship and the stakeholders in the community. Social innovation can be developed and promoted by understanding and supporting the customers, the community and the other stakeholders. Social businesses can be built and can flourish in the marketplace only by obtaining support from the people in the community. This research presents a conceptual framework. Empirical study is underdeveloped here yet, we have begun to investigate the emerging process of social innovation clusters in the San Francisco Bay area in the USA. (For further details, refer to; Tanimoto and Doi (2007).