"The emerging field of social entrepreneurship has been crying out for a definitive textbook. With clarity, insight, and a strong practical orientation, the authors of Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector have set the gold standard for many years to come." -Professor J. Gregory Dees, Duke University, Co-author of Enterprising Nonprofits and Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs "The past thirty years have witnessed a remarkable revolution in which entrepreneurs - people like Bob Swanson at Genentech, Steve Jobs at Apple, and Meg Whitman at eBay - have transformed the business landscape around the world. A parallel revolution of at least equal importance has taken place in the social sector in which tens of thousands of organizations have been created with social missions ranging from curing disease to improving education to alleviating global warming. But, how do these social ventures get going? How do they attract capital to launch and grow? How do they measure their performance? In short, how do they accomplish their mission? In Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector, Jane Wei-Skillern, James Austin, Herman Leonard, and Howard Stevenson provide insights into these issues by combining powerful frameworks for decision-making with detailed case studies on important social ventures. The book is helpful to those launching or managing such organizations and to those who support their efforts through donations and board membership. Society needs these ventures to succeed - all involved would benefit from reading this book."

-William A. Sahlman, Harvard Business School

"This is so much more than a casebook! Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector offers a grounded and insightfulconceptualization of the key challenges and fundamental processes of social entrepreneurship. It also presents practical frameworks for analyzing both, across a wide range of organizations. This book should be on the shelf of every aspiring and successful social entrepreneur."

-James A. Phills, Jr., Stanford Graduate School of Business, and author of Integrating Mission and Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations

Written for students and practitioners, this unique text, with Harvard cases, provides detailed analysis and frameworks for achieving maximum impact through social entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector enables readers to attain an in depth understanding of the distinctive characteristics of the social enterprise context and organizations. The authors offer tools to develop the knowledge to pursue social entrepreneurship more strategically and achieve mission impact more efficiently, effectively, and sustainably.

Key Features"Spans a range of social enterprise activity: Examples are included across multiple and varied contexts from the nonprofit, business, and government sectors."Offers"" Harvard Business School"" case studies: " Through these cases, the critical components of social entrepreneurship are addressed including start-up, funding, growth, alliances and collaboration, and performance measurement."Presents cutting edge social enterprise research: " Detailed analysis and frameworks introduce the key themes and ideas that are illustrated through the cases at the end of each chapter."Provides US and international coverage: " Since social entrepreneurship is a growing field in the US and abroad, a number of case studies set in internationalsettings are included."

Intended AudienceThe text is designed as a core or supplementary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Social Entrepreneurship or Non-Profit Entrepreneurship in the departments of business, management, marketing, and public policy.