Scientific mapping and thematic progression of digitalization of social entrepreneurship in developing countries

Information technologies are being extensively used by social entrepreneurs to achieve their social and financial goals. Studies on the convergence of social entrepreneurship with digital entrepreneurship is, nevertheless, lacking. Also, studies that relate corporate social responsibility (CSR), innovation, sustainability, and the integrated notion of digitalization of social entrepreneurship (DSE) are also questioned. This study sought to identify prospective topics for future researches to link DSE with various parameters by conducting a bibliometric review utilizing data pulled from the Scopus database. The clustering by document coupling analysis pinpointed to the industry 4.0 and digital economy themes, as well as to more specialized, COVID-19, innovation, sustainable development, and CSR themes. The study identified a number of themes that are under appreciated, such as social innovation, agro-ecology, and agriculture. The keyword co-occurrence network mostly identified five study areas, social entrepreneurship intentions, social enterprise sustainability and economic growth, sustainable development and socio-economic effects of DSE, entrepreneurs' social innovation and business development, and industry 4.0, the digital economy and CSR.