Entrepreneurial Project Initiation Processes for Social Enterprises in a Developing Economy Context

Project management has emerged as a theoretical construct in guiding managerial decision-making, whilst extending from its traditional dominance in the construction and engineering domain to social enterprises. This qualitative case study draws from managerial experiences, and their role in project management to examine how entrepreneurial elements are integrated into the project management initiation processes of social enterprises operating in a developing economy context. The paper identifies best-practice entrepreneurial project initiation processes. This theoretical model linking project management and corporate entrepreneurship theory provides a more insightful examination of the developmental journey of project management, whilst simultaneously incorporating the entrepreneurial notions of risk-taking, innovativeness, proactivity, creativity, and competitiveness. The paper argues that the more dynamic and complex the project environment, the stronger the appetite towards adoption of entrepreneurial project initiation processes for social enterprises.