Introduction
Today, the process of executing entrepreneurial activity forms the main factors of market economic system. Entrepreneurship is a powerful engine of economic and social development of society. It is precisely this activity that is closely associated with such concepts as “dynamism”, “initiative”, and “courage”. Thus, it realizes many interesting ideas, which favor the progress (Department of Trade and Industry 2002).One cannot deny the fact that entrepreneurial activity provides a powerful incentive for highly productive labor, high profits, and, ultimately, improved social services. Therefore, business and entrepreneurship are the key elements of any modern market economy, which define a harmonious development of a state. There exist different forms of entrepreneurial activity, including finance and credit entrepreneurship, mediatory entrepreneurship, insurance entrepreneurship, etc. However, commercial entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship are the two forms of business activity, which draw the most attention. Some researchers have critically compared and contrasted these two forms of entrepreneurship in terms of their aims, functions, characteristics, methods, and strategies. Nevertheless, I would like to compare commercial entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship in the light of some dimensions of responsible leadership. This is because, although, responsible leadership is one of the most important issues in the modern business world, it is one of the least understood. Only a few decades ago, responsible business leadership was a luxury. However, today it is an urgent imperative, without which neither commercial, nor social business can exist. The purpose of this paper is to critically compare and contrast commercial entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship using the following dimensions of responsible leadership: viability, accountability, ethics, decision making, acting in an appropriate manner, transparency, observing community obligations, integrity, fair treatment, managing negative impacts of the work process, and demonstrating humanity.Commercial Entrepreneurship vs. Social EntrepreneurshipBefore I go in to detailed comparison of commercial entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, I would like to single out their main features in order to differentiate these two business forms. Commercial entrepreneurship is a form of business activity, which is based on trade and trade facilitation, and participation in sales, or promotion of sales of goods and services.This activity is characterized by the fact that the essence of its content is based on commodity-money relations, trade, and exchange transactions. Also, commercial entrepreneurship deals with the resale of goods and services. In contrast to the industrial and business activities, there is no need for productive resources, associated with the release of products (Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Skillern 2006, p. 15).Just like any commercial activity, commercial entrepreneurship is always carried out in order to get business profits. Schematically, commercial entrepreneurship may be presented in the following way: Money – Goods – Profit. Social entrepreneurship does not have any fundamentally different features of normal life cycle that traditional (i. e. commercial) entrepreneurship has. However, social entrepreneurship always has its social mission. Therefore, the greatest difference between social and commercial entrepreneurships lies in the fact that a social enterprise usually terminates its activity after fulfilling its mission; and a commercial enterprise usually terminates its activity when the level …