Resumo

Even though the increasing recognition of the impact of social entrepreneurship on economic, the field has been progressing slowly in recent years, especially regarding social entrepreneur’s profile. some research has focused on social entrepreneur profile, however, because it has focused on comparing social entrepreneurs and commercial entrepreneurs, it has failed to capture the unique profile of social entrepreneurs.

Because of that, limited is the understanding of social entrepreneurs’ nuances and the influence of their characteristic in their entrepreneurial intention. In this sense, this research aims to address the question: How does the literature depict the social entrepreneur profile? The main objective of this research is to analyze the social entrepreneur's profile as discussed in the literature.

Social entrepreneurs are often depicted as emphatic individuals, with a strong moral judgement, capable of relating to others’ suffering (Maír & Noboa, 2006). Because social entrepreneurs are oriented to a problem, they possess an integrative thinking (Miller et al., 2012). Empathy, compassion, and pro-social motivation are the closest characteristics of social entrepreneurs (Abebe, Kimakwa & Redd, 2020).

The results of this study show that the researchers have been using different approahs to clarify the definition of social entrepreneuship. Even though that, it was possible to capture four vital characteristics of social entrepreneurs: 1) vision and opportunity seeking, 2) innovation, 3) social motivation, and 4) empathy. From the results, it’s possible to see that future researchs should focus on other regions contexts in order to capture the social entrepreneur profile.

In conclusion, empathy is shown to a vital characteristic of social entrepreneurs, but this characteristic is combined with others, such as self-transcendence and vision. In analyzing the profile of social entrepreneurs it was highlighted the importance of policies and institutions that supports social entrepreneurs and promote distinctive qualities. The limitation of this study is the difficulty in comparing results.

Abebe, M. A., Kimakwa, S., & Redd, T. (2020). Toward a typology of social entrepreneurs: the interplay between passionate activism and entrepreneurial expertise. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 27(4), 509–530.Mair, J. NOBOA, E. Social entrepreneurship: how intentions to create a social venture are Miller, T., Grimes, M.G., McMullen, J.S., Vogus, T.J. (2012). Venturing for others with heart and head: how compassion encourages social entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Review, 37 (4), 616-640. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0456