The role of social entrepreneurship in socio-economic development: a meta-analysis of the nascent field

Purpose This study aims to present the first meta-analysis of the research on social entrepreneurship and socio-economic development (SESED). Nation-states, researchers and organizations realized the pivotal role of social entrepreneurship in socio-economic development in the recent two decades. The body of knowledge in this domain witnessed consistent research growth, but it still lacks a critical review to map the scholarly literature and to guide future researchers. Design/methodology/approach This study used meta-analysis that combines bibliometric and content analyzes of 83 most relevant articles from 910 initially retrieved articles from the Web of Science, published in 75 different journals and 45 countries during 2005 and 2020. The analysis was performed using Histcite, VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software to identify the most influential aspects and to conduct citation and content analyze of selected publications. Findings The findings showed an overall consistent growth in research publications during the past 16 years with "Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise: International and Innovation Perspectives" as the most influential article, "Entrepreneurship and Regional Development" as the most influential journal, and the USA and the UK as the most productive countries. The keyword co-occurrence analysis exposed five thematic clusters and content analysis revealed five streams within the selected publications. Practical implications This study provides 10 research questions that urge future researchers to conduct a thorough investigation on how social entrepreneurship while solving social, cultural, environmental and community issues, contributes to socio-economic development. Originality/value This study identifies prominent trends, intellectual structure, leading research streams and specific future research directions in the field of SESED.