Young Social Entrepreneurs and Social Challenges: The “Parallelo” Case Study

The chapter is focused on social entrepreneurship and, after providing a comprehensive literature review on the topics, aims at providing evidence of the decision-making process of social entrepreneurs and of the strategies they implement by focusing on a single case study, namely “Parallelo.” Parallelo was founded in 2017 by four young
Italian social entrepreneurs with the aim of promoting social inclusion of fragile categories and foreign people. Their “formula” is the “social lab” involving creative craftsmen that collaborate in the design and creation of sustainable products based on recyclable/discarded materials. By implementing a narrative approach, the case study is developed following step by step the social enterprise establishment and development. In doing so, the study aims at contributing to the social entrepreneurship field of research and at providing insights for practitioners about how decisions are made and strategies implemented within social entrepreneurial teams.