Reviewing the literature: from user innovator to social user entrepreneur

This research explored the boundaries of the theories on user entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship by examining the differences and analogies between them. This research was the first to explore the analogies between both types of entrepreneurship and theorized about the value these types of entrepreneurship individually and combined can bring. Knowledge gained on social user entrepreneurship, and whether it serves as a valuable instrument to address societal unmet needs was an important motivation for this research. We have linked the lead user characteristics to the social entrepreneurship characteristics. We found that unmet personal needs are an crucial factor for social and user entrepreneurship and linked this to the social mission, social value creation and opportunity recognition. Non-pecuniary aspects motivate both types of entrepreneurs. Other commonalities found were that both types of entrepreneurs overcome resource scarcity, and that the influence of the community is very strong. We have found that the influence of market failure and sticky information might serve as proxy for social user innovation. This research provided interesting avenues for conducting future research which will contribute to a more solid understanding of social user entrepreneurship to social innovation by lead users in context characterized by social unmet needs.