Social entrepreneurship success factors: what makes social entrepreneurs successful and what are the similarities to commercial entrepreneurship

This thesis aims to identify what makes social entrepreneurs and their ventures successful and which success factors of commercial entrepreneurship also apply to social entrepreneurship. A methodological triangulation approach is applied to literature, interview, and case study data to investigate these objectives. Success factors were identified through a systematic literature review and inductively coded into sub-themes and overarching themes. Interview and case study results were deductively coded into these themes. In the triangulation, their importance was determined according to interview and case study results. In total, 32 success factors of social entrepreneurs and their ventures belonging to the following themes were identified: internal, external, human capital aspects, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial characteristics. 20of these factors were identified in commercial entrepreneurship literature, indicating a significant similarity across both forms of entrepreneurship. The results of this thesis are valuable for social entrepreneurs, aspiring social entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders of social ventures to identify areas that require attention and necessary skills, functions, and resources to enable social entrepreneurial success