Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development Goals: A Conceptual Framework

Studies linking social entrepreneurship and sustainable development goals (SDGs) are gaining interest due to the possible impact acceleration to achieve both social and economic goals. Social entrepreneurship supports technology upgrading and innovation with the digital approach. This study proposes an updated conceptual framework that connects social entrepreneurship with SDGs, mainly targeting 8.2 in SDG 8 (achieving higher economic productivity levels through diversification, technological upgrading, and innovation, focusing on high value-added and labor-intensive sectors). However, less research addresses the focus on digital technology and SDGs. With this study, the authors contribute to filling this research gap by answering this research question: how can social innovation within social entrepreneurship using digital technology improve Sustainable Development Goals achievement? A systematic literature review of 3,214 social entrepreneurship-related journals based on the Scopus database with no publication date restriction resulted in 111 included studies. The results were then mapped into two bibliographic visualizations using VOSViewer, i.e., "social entrepreneurship" and "technology innovation in social entrepreneurship." In social entrepreneurship visualization, the technology-related keyword filter only resulted in 1 keyword, i.e., "technology transfer," which shows fewer research activities. In technology-related visualization, there are four keywords ("technology transfer," "social technology," "technology and innovation," and "technology"). Five organizational level constructs in digital social entrepreneurship were identified: sustainable entrepreneurship development, social business model design, government regulation, marketing strategy, and creative solution generation capacity. These organization behavior dimensions have been categorized to illustrate their influence on digital social entrepreneurship and SDG. Hence, this study is envisioned to provide original work in the theoretical development of bridging digital social entrepreneurship and SDGs that benefit both academicians and practitioners.