Dear Colleagues,

Social sector organizations play an increasingly important role in modern societies, complementing or providing the answer to existing and emerging social needs. During crises, the role of these organizations is highlighted, and the COVID-19 pandemic will again appeal to those involved in social organizations and to social entrepreneurs to find innovative solutions to social needs.

Considering the importance and interconnections between social marketing and social entrepreneurship, this Special Issue is focused on the role of education to support the growing importance of social sector organizations and to enhance the skills of the social marketing professionals and the skills of the social entrepreneurs to innovate and improve their performance which, therefore, will contribute to improve the social value resulting from their activities.

However, despite the social value provided, social sector organizations face several challenges, including the growing and wide diversity of social needs, the scarcity (and unequal distribution) of financial and human resources, and limitations to innovation (including the lack of collaboration and spillovers between universities and other organizations).

In this context, the Special Issue aims to contribute to clarify the role that education can play in these areas, helping to surpass the existing challenges. Among the possible topics and questions that can be covered, we highlight the following:

• Recent advancements in social marketing and social entrepreneurship education;
• Perspectives on the evolution of social marketing and social entrepreneurship;
• Skills that social marketing professionals and social entrepreneurs need to be successful;
• Best practices in the identification and development of the needed skills through education;
• Evidence on the relationship between education and social marketing and social entrepreneurship, including, for example, the relationship between prior education and the propensity to engage in social entrepreneurship and/or its impact.

The deadline to submit papers to this special issue is 30 September, 2021. However, papers submitted in advance will be analyzed immediately and may be published well before this deadline.

Prof. Ricardo Rodrigues
Dr. Oyvin Kyvik
Prof. Carla Martinez-Climent
Ms. Teresa Felício
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• social marketing
• social entrepreneurship
• sustainable entrepreneurship
• social value
• social innovation
• social sector
• education