Analyzing Descriptive and Content Structure of Scientific Outputs in the Field of Social Entrepreneurship

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Prof., Department of Social Science, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

2 Assistant Professor; Department of Library and Information Science; Yazd University; Yazd,

3 Assistant Prof., Department of Knowledge and Information Science, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht Branch, Iran

Abstract
Entrepreneurship is an innovative and creative activity.  Entrepreneurship is achieved by identifying, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities to create specific products. The present study aimed to analyze content structure of Social Entrepreneurship (SE) in the Web of Science (WoS) database. Scientific studies related to social entrepreneurship help to understand the scope of studies of that subject.  The methodology of this study was scientometric analysis, which conducted co-word occurrence analysis focusing on SE. Data sourced from the Web of Science (WoS) database revealed a corpus of 4,292 documents related to software engineering (SE) from 1990 to 2024. The research findings reveal a diverse array of topics associated with SE in WoS publications, indicating academic diversity and a focus on American universities and various countries. Over the past two decades, SE research has transitioned from a nascent field to a well-established discipline. Key phrases such as "SE," "social enterprise", "entrepreneurship," "social innovation," "sustainability," and "innovation" emerge as the most frequent in SE literature on the WoS database. By doing this in the future, researchers can delve deeper into various aspects of SE, exploring emerging trends, innovative practices, and addressing pressing societal challenges.

Keywords


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Volume 23, Issue 3
Summer 2025
Pages 191-207

  • Receive Date 29 August 2023
  • Revise Date 17 June 2025
  • Accept Date 17 June 2025