1. Social Entrepreneurship in Non-profit and Profit Activities. Theoretical and Empirical Landscape: An Overview

The economic crisis and the necessity for different governments to maintain a balanced budget has left an extensive territory for the initiatives which originate from social entrepreneurship through the market and/or with the support of other institutions. These initiatives originate from non-profit companies in which social entrepreneurship has manifested in its most classical and strictest sense and for-profit companies in which social entrepreneurship has acquired a broader and less precise dimension. In this introductory chapter, we propose special care when discussing the broad dimension of social entrepreneurship, its utilitarian basis and its possibilities to discover market segments which make the solution of social deficiencies compatible with the earning of profits. Finally, we briefly present the different chapters of the book.