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Social entrepreneurs are leaders who aspire to build more just societies through the mechanisms of the market. The concept of social enterprise has grown increasingly popular, but it continues to be a nebulous notion. This chapter explores the meaning of social enterprise and the attributes and characteristics of social entrepreneurial leaders whose enterprises have become the vehicles of social, economic, and even political transformations. The transformative potential of social entrepreneurial leaders is illustrated with brief, but prominent, examples that are aimed to inspire further research. It is shown that social entrepreneurship is not confined to an exclusive arena, but actually flourishes in diverse sectors. It is also posited that educational institutions and organizations can promote greater interest and investment in social entrepreneurship as a progressive model for a positive social change.

Researchers have proposed a variety of models to depict, explain, and understand ethical decision-making processes. Rest (1986) proposed a four-stage, individually oriented model, in which a person who makes a moral decision must (1) recognize the moral issue, (2) make a moral judgment, (3) establish moral intent, and (4) make moral decisions. Similarly, Ferrell, Gresham, and Fraedrich (1989) developed a five-stage model that included awareness, cognitions, evaluations, determination, and actions. Finally, Trevino (1986) proposed a slightly different model that begins with the recognition of an ethical dilemma and proceeds to a cognition stage in which individuals make moral judgments that further affect their ethical or unethical decisions (see Jones, 1991, for a review).