Reimagining Social Entrepreneurship in the Digital Era a Bibliometric Analysis of Sustainability Innovation and Emerging Research Trends 2020 to 2025

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has become a fundamental tool towards solving the complicated social problems in the society through the incorporation of both economic value generation and social contribution. Within the framework of the accelerated digital change and the growing interest in sustainability, the area has undergone a considerable conceptual and empirical growth. Nevertheless, the current literature is still disjunctive and has no unified insight into the recent intellectual and thematic development. To fill this gap, the current study is a comprehensive bibliometric review of the social entrepreneurship research published in 2020-2025 and using the Scopus database. Two thousand two hundred and ninety-nine journal articles and review papers were examined using the Biblioshiny and VOSviewer in order to analyze the performance indicators, intellectual structure, and concept development. The results indicate the continuous increase in academic production, and the research activity in the post-pandemic period is significantly increased. Citation analysis can recognize a group of very powerful publications that still influence the theoretical basis of the discipline. The use of Bradford Law suggests that the knowledge is concentrated among a small number of core interdisciplinary journals, whereas there are global patterns of collaboration, that emphasize the growing engagement of the emerging economies and the already existing research centers. The analysis of the conceptual structure illustrates that the sustainability, innovation, and social impact remain the primary themes, and new focus on digitalization, behavioral orientations, and education. Thematic mapping also indicates the shift towards integrated and multidimensional research designs which is placed on the changing role of social entrepreneurship in responding to digitally enabled value creation and sustainability transitions. The paper adds to the literature by offering a systematic review of the recent trends, dividing the current research into major domains of study, and indicating the future perspectives in accordance with sustainability and digital transformation. The implications have useful implications on scholars, policymakers, and practitioners who are interested in using social entrepreneurship as a tool to achieve inclusive and sustainable development in the fast changing global world.