Mapping The Landscape of Social Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric Analysis

Social entrepreneurship is thought to be the most pertinent remedy to the numerous social and environmental problems facing the world today by utilizing a sustainable economic model, particularly for developing countries with little assistance from the government (Fazal et al., 2023; Chavesta et al., 2025). It has emerged as a significant field of study, that helps to address social challenges by providing innovative and sustainable business models. The objective of social entrepreneurship is different from that of other models of entrepreneurship as this combines social benefits along with economic benefits (Suhashini et al., 2021). Bibliometric analysis techniques can be used for quantitatively analyzing written documents (Ellegaard & Wallin, 2015b). The study uses bibliometric analysis to investigate the intellectual structure, research trends as well as the thematic evolution of social entrepreneurship (Khairy et al., 2025) during the last 16 years by using information taken from the Scopus database. Using the data, a comprehensive analysis of publication trends, most relevant authors, key journals, co-citation networks, and thematic clusters is conducted. Key research hotspots, developing theoretical frameworks, and significant cooperation networks are shown by the findings, which demonstrate the exponential rise of the literature in this field. The study also highlights new topics and areas for future investigation, which advances our knowledge of the field’s evolution.