Social entrepreneurship is a field of entrepreneurship praised for its potential to solve complex social problems by harnessing the power of enterprise. However, it is this very complexity that causes social entrepreneurs to walk a narrow line of conflicting priorities of mission and profit while navigating complicated cultural and economic landscapes. This precariousness makes the possibility of failure high, and the social aspect makes the stakes should an enterprise fail that much higher. This dissertation begins with a new premise for social entrepreneurship that views social enterprise as an interpretive endeavor where the mission of the enterprise is the text, the entrepreneur the interpreter, and the target community the author. This project then seeks to define a hermeneutic (interpretive) framework for social entrepreneurs by first investigating the relevance of hermeneutic factors in social enterprise success, and subsequently how research of social entrepreneurial failure can be improved.

Social entrepreneurship is a field of entrepreneurship praised for its potential to solve complex social problems by harnessing the power of enterprise. However, it is this very complexity that causes social entrepreneurs to walk a narrow line of conflicting priorities of mission and profit while navigating complicated cultural and economic landscapes. This precariousness makes the possibility of failure high, and the social aspect makes the stakes should an enterprise fail that much higher. This dissertation begins with a new premise for social entrepreneurship that views social enterprise as an interpretive endeavor where the mission of the enterprise is the text, the entrepreneur the interpreter, and the target community the author. This project then seeks to define a hermeneutic (interpretive) framework for social entrepreneurs by first investigating the relevance of hermeneutic factors in social enterprise success, and subsequently how research of social entrepreneurial failure can be improved