Social entrepreneurship: From definition to performance measurement

This article explores how performance evaluation of social entrepreneurs can be improved by comparing the concept with commercial entrepreneurship and not-for-profit organizations. Towards this objective collective efficacy and social capital concepts are discussed in their relevance and capacity to evaluate performance in attaining social missions. Collective efficacy indicates what members of a community will do with their knowledge. It is measured through two dimensions; social cohesion and informal controls. Social capital indicates the nature and the quality of relations as well as shared perceptions with the community. It is underlined that the improvements achieved in evaluations will contribute to fostering social entrepreneurship by maintaining its legitimacy. The final suggestion is the need to learn from other disciplines mainly from public administration