Innovation and social entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review

The gaps left by the inaction of the State in solving social problems has stimulated attempts by civil society to seek practical alternatives that solve social needs not answered by government institutions. Thus, the aim of this paper is to synthesise the literature on Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation through a systematic literature review (SLR), spanning the period from 2000 to 2019, with 23 studies, using VOSviewer software to identify trends in the literature and categorise them thematically. The results were analysed from two perspectives: descriptive and content. The study is justified by the importance of the theme within international academia, attracting the attention of various disciplines, with emphasis on the 03 "Special Volumes" linked to major international seminars worldwide and the trend of increasing citations. Regarding the results, there is a concentration of studies in American countries (34%), followed by European and Asian countries with 22% each. Oceania and africa had the lowest participation, with 11% each of the total sample. This RSL resulted in the identification of five research lines, aiming to answer the two research questions proposed by this study. Special emphasis is given to National Innovation Systems as a catalyst of the innovation process at a global level. The limitations of this study refer to the research protocol, which may have restricted the number of articles that constitute the RSL, and the role of innovation in social entrepreneurship, as a fragment of one of the research questions, and empirical data is needed to prove this relation.