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In this paper we report on the perceptions of co-production in the UK voluntary, community and social enterprise sector from those directly involved. We conducted five case studies, each involving interviews with two people who had formed a co-production relationship. We found positive perceptions of co-production from all interviewees. We suggest organisational and individual factors that are important to successful co-production and provide practical examples. We reflect on implications for practice by considering co-production relationships, time and resources.

The literature on social enterprises has largely examined tradeoffs at the organizational level. In this study, we examine tradeoffs at the employee level. By analyzing the case of an Ecuadorian microfinance institution, we show that the tenure of social enterprise employees affects individual social and financial performance differently: the relationship between tenure and social performance is positive, whereas the relationship between tenure and financial performance is an inverted U-shape. Furthermore, our results suggest that social enterprise employees with the longest tenure are the least inclined to experience tradeoff tensions.

Despite the growing social entrepreneurship (SE) literature in other disciplines, the research on tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) is still in its infancy, and the knowledge has not been expli...

Purpose Social enterprises are defined in practice in terms of one operational model generating measurable value in more than one of the economic, social and natural/ecological value denomination categories. However, entrepreneurship theory does not generally or explicitly reflect this definition, which has generated confusion about the social enterprise concept. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to social enterprise theory by delineating novel aspects of this definition and their conceptual ramifications. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the social enterprise literature with a focus only on the most original contributions and most distinct research questions. The authors do not explicitly review research on traditional for-profit entrepreneurial ventures, not-for-profit/non-governmental organizations or mainstream social entrepreneurial ventures. Findings The authors offer several implications for social enterprise theory based on practices that are unique to the area but not amenable other areas of entrepreneurship. The contribution is instrumental to establishing social enterprise as a distinct theoretic area. Originality/value By focusing on novel aspects of social enterprise not easily explainable by mainstream theoretic traditions, the authors offer an original contribution to the development of social enterprise theory.

This commentary is part of the Organizational Zoo case series exploring the social franchising model of Unjani Clinics, a South African healthcare-focused social enterprise. The social franchising model has enabled Unjani to gain early traction and the social enterprise has ambitious plans for future growth. I describe and elaborate on organizational features of the social franchising model that may enable or constrain efforts to scale up. Noting the unique challenges and opportunities presented by emerging market contexts, I outline scaling considerations across three dimensions: organizational design, team composition, and organizational culture.

Celem artykułu jest prezentacja wybranych praktyk zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi w przedsiębiorstwach społecznych. W publikacji opisano sukces społecznego przedsiębiorcy, kontekstowe uwarunkowania osiągania sukcesu przedsiębiorstw społecznych oraz typologie czynników decydujących o sukcesie przedsiębiorstw społecznych. Zarządzanie zasobami ludzkimi w przedsiębiorstwie społecznym jest procesem złożonym, względem którego ciągle brak jest wyczerpującej wiedzy i wypracowanych, w pełni sprawdzonych narzędzi. W opracowaniu dokonano charakterystyki specyfiki zarządzania przedsiębiorstwem społecznym. Uzupełnienia artykułu dokonuje opis zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi i praktyki zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi w przedsiębiorstwach społecznych. Możliwości, które daje właściwe zarządzanie zasobami ludzkimi, stwarza warunki do skutecznego zarządzania przedsiębiorstwem przy wyznaczonej misji oraz określonych celach strategicznych firmy. Z całą pewnością można stwierdzić, że organizacje społeczne, które opracowują ambitne i wartościowe strategie oraz które podchodzą z należytą starannością do każdeg z elementów procesu zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi Ostatnią z poruszonych kwestii w tym artykule jest charakterystyka kompetencji przedsiębiorcy społecznego, gdzie znajomość kompetencji wymaganych do zarządzania przedsiębiorstwem społecznym jest atutem każdej organizacji.

The aim of this paper is to identify the main practices and capabilities developed by social enterprises and to explore the relationship between the dual organizational identity of social enterprises and their operational capabilities. A multiple case-study research is conducted comprising five cases representative of the diversity of social enterprise models. The results suggest that the operations strategy in social enterprises is influenced by their dual organizational identity and entails some operational practices and capabilities beyond those traditionally reported in manufacturing companies. They adopt a greater diversity of practices aimed at improvement and cooperation capabilities and their specificities lead to the development of the mobilization of resources capability and the openness capability. Social enterprises with a high social identity show greater evidence of the development of these operational capabilities. This study contributes to the literature on operations strategy by identifying a set of operational practices and capabilities developed by social enterprises and exploring how they are influenced by their dual organizational identity. It responds to the claims that suggest that studying social enterprises would be a fertile ground to advance theoretical and empirical research in the field of service operations. Developing knowledge on the operations management of social enterprises provides valuable insights into improving the performance of such organizations. published

The spread of COVID-19 and the consequent restrictive measures that became necessary in the first months of 2020 hit Italy hard. With this research, summarised here and published in the IV Iris Network report on social enterprises in Italy, the authors investigate COVID-19's impact on social enterprises, the behaviours of these enterprises and the strategies they used to cope with the consequences of the health crisis. A qualitative survey was conducted in the second half of 2020 to probe the research questions. The results are based on two data sources: (a) the Resilience Stories database, a collection of 118 experiences of third sector organisations, and (b) 53 in-depth interviews with social enterprises and managers of third sector organisations, as well as interviews with national and regional policymakers. Both investigations suggested that during the first wave of the pandemic, social enterprises and other third sector organisations acted resiliently, engaging in creative rethinking of their activities and services and becoming even stronger reference points for the community. Copyright © 2021 The Authors.

Capital investment as high as US$16 tn is required to address the shortage of adequate and affordable housing worldwide. Market-driven housing approaches that produce quality units, reduce dwelling costs, and provide access to a range of capital sources can help to solve this challenge. This article describes the experience of a social enterprise in Mexico that is taking its proven, market-driven housing solution to countries in Africa using a joint venture franchising company to execute a master franchising strategy. Its experience and the innovative approach it used to scale internationally offer useful insights and lessons for housing practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.

Over the last 20 years, social entrepreneurship has attracted the attention of researchers from a wide variety of disciplines which, in turn, has generated a large variety of understandings of the meaning of social entrepreneurship. This paper maps the existing definitions, using a citation map and cluster analysis methods. Studying 307 documents that contain social entrepreneurship definitions, the analysis reveals that - contrary to what has been commonly believed -there does, in fact, exist widespread consensus within the academic community on the definition and meaning of the term social entrepreneurship and it is primarily centred on the combination of social and financial goals, community ideals and innovation.

Organizations play a fundamental role in mitigating social inequality, with emphasis on social enterprises. Thus, the objective is to analyze how a social enterprise acts as an intermediator to promote social innovations in companies. A case study was held in a local social enterprise located in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, and which develops projects of social impact for other organizations. The data stems from participant observation, interviews and access to secondary data. The results indicate that social innovation is generated from the interaction between client companies and the final benefited public, through the intermediation promoted by the analyzed company, when conducting the process of creating and implementing social projects. As organizações têm papel fundamental na mitigação da desigualdade social, com destaque para empresas sociais. Assim, o objetivo foi analisar de que maneira um empreendimento social pode atuar como um agente intermediário ao desenvolver projetos para empresas convencionais que desejam promover a inovação social. Foi realizado um estudo de caso em um empreendimento social localizado na cidade de Porto Alegre/RS, que desenvolve projetos de impacto social para outras organizações. Os dados foram provenientes de observação participante, entrevistas, sites e vídeos. Os resultados indicam que a inovação social é gerada a partir da interação entre as empresas clientes e o público beneficiado, por meio da intermediação promovida pela empresa analisada, ao conduzir o processo de criação e implementação dos projetos sociais. Las empresas sociales juegan un papel fundamental en la mitigación de la desigualdad social. Así, el objetivo fue analizar cómo una empresa social puede actuar como intermediaria en el desarrollo de proyectos para empresas convencionales que deseen impulsar la innovación social. Se realizó un estudio de caso en una empresa social ubicada en Porto Alegre/RS, Brasil, que desarrolla proyectos con impacto social para otras organizaciones. Los datos provienen de la observación participante, entrevistas, sitios web y videos. La innovación social se genera a partir de la interacción entre las empresas clientes y el público final beneficiado, a través de la intermediación promovida por la empresa analizada, a la hora de realizar el proceso de creación e implementación de proyectos sociales.

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to structure the impact investing phenomenon and distinguish it from traditional investing or philanthropy, including the motivation of investors in impact investing projects; to analyse stakeholders in impact investing projects according to four main categories; to structure the implementation model of the theory of change in the context of impact investing; to build managerial decisions concerning the development of impact investing projects in crisis situations. Case overview/synopsis The case describes the development path of the Promprylad.Renovation project from its concept to the critical moment at the end of 2018. Yuriy Fyliuk – the case protagonist, acts as the main ideologist and leader of the project, the essence of which is the establishment of an innovation centre on the area of the old Promprylad plant in Ivano-Frankivsk. Impact investing was selected as the main project development tool, as it allows for attracting investors who share the aspiration for positive change of the city and potential financial benefit. The project is implemented in several stages as follows: partner involvement (Insha Osvita, MitOst, Pact Ukraine and LvBS), vision finalisation and research (together with Stanford Research Institute, Zotov & Co, FORMA Architects, Moris Group, etc.), the launch of the pilot floor (attracting more than $683,000 from allocated grants and more than $590,000 of private investments). Open equity crowdfunding and the purchase of the entire plant, with its subsequent renovation, should be the next stage. As of 2017, agreements have been reached to pay fully for the purchase of the plant by the end of 2019. After a successful pilot and lengthy negotiations, it was agreed that $1,000,000 should be paid by the end of 2018 and $2,000,000 by the end of 2019 to complete the buyout. However, as of the end of 2018, martial law was proclaimed in Ukraine. Hence, considering the risks, a major US investor refuses to contribute. The main dilemma is either to find a suitable solution to complete the buyout of the plant or to stop the project. Complexity academic level This case can be used in the master’s programmes of business schools (MBA, Executive MBA, Entrepreneurship, etc.), as well as in training programmes for public and state sector managers. The case study will be particularly useful for mixed groups with representatives from different sectors of the economy. This case study might be taught in the following disciplines: social entrepreneurship, social investing, leadership and crisis management. The subject of impact investing allows recognition of the benefits of combined cross-sectoral efforts over joint projects. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 7: Management science.

Social enterprises need to identify an innovative and differentiated business model to more efficiently meet the needs of their clients and survive in the long term. However, research on customer perception of this innovation is scant. Therefore, the objective of this research was to explore the effect of socially responsible consumption on the business model innovation perceived by clients of social enterprises in the service sector and its effect on satisfaction and loyalty. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted with 400 customers of social enterprises in the services sector in Mexico. Results showed that socially responsible consumption had a positive influence of perceived business model innovation. Perceived business model innovation had a direct, positive influence on customer satisfaction and an indirect positive influence on loyalty. The implications of the results were discussed.

Social enterprises have positive effect on sustainable development, and they have become an important instrument for solving social problems (especially in rural areas), as the national and local governments alone cannot solve all such problems. To foster the development of social entrepreneurship, Latvia has introduced several support instruments for social enterprises, which include tax relief, privileged procurement contracts, grants, as well as non-monetary kinds of support. However, social entrepreneurs often point out that support from the national and local governments is insufficient, while the support instruments stipulated in the Social Enterprise Law are not widely used. Therefore, the aim of the research is to analyse national and local government support instruments for social enterprises in Latvia. The research found that the most important financial instrument fostering the development of social entrepreneurship in Latvia is a grant scheme administered by the Ministry of Welfare and the JSC Development Finance Institution Altum, which is available in the range of EUR 5000 to 200000 for investment and working capital. In the period 2017-2020, 94 social entrepreneurship projects with a total budget of EUR 6 million were supported, which could be viewed as significant financial support. In contrast, immovable property tax relief, exemption from enterprise income tax (on profits) and relief from this tax for several categories of non-business expenses are considered by social entrepreneurs to be an insignificant kind of support. There is also lack of experience and practice regarding the inclusion of social criteria in public procurement in Latvia.

Social enterprise is popular among researchers because of its contribution and prominence in society. Many entrepreneurs seek to create ventures that not only yield a profit but also add value to society. However, previous studies have found that the level of public awareness is still low and that the existence of social enterprises is still at early stage. Thus, they suggest the use of social media as an alternative way to attract attention and create public awareness on social enterprise in Malaysia. To this end, this concept paper seeks to explore the level of public responses on existing social enterprise in Malaysia and discover the role of social media in terms of enhancing social enterprise awareness and promoting social enterprise. The three levels of public responses to be used in this concept paper are ‘aware’, ‘interested’ and ‘engaged’. Data will be retrieved from social media (Facebook and Twitter). Essentially, this concept paper is an attempt to provide first insight regarding the level of social enterprise awareness in Malaysia and to recognize the vital elements in social media sites. In order to enhance social enterprise awareness, this concept paper proposes storytelling canvas as a support tool. For data analysis or data management, this paper will use SPSS and NVivo to elaborate the framework and flow of data collection in order to measure the ability of social media to significantly enhance social enterprise awareness in Malaysia. It will also suggest the framework for related study in the future.

Learning outcomes After studying this case, students should be able to: explain how strategic management relates to the areas of innovation, operations, technology, entrepreneurship and emerging markets; analyse strategy implementation and execution at the operational level, in contrast to strategy formulation at the strategic mission, values and vision level; discuss innovation, entrepreneurship and new technologies in emerging markets; and assess the impact of technology-driven entrepreneurship on significant socio-economic change that is on transformational entrepreneurship, in emerging markets. Case overview/synopsis This case outlines key global challenges facing higher education in the African context. It discusses the African Leadership University (ALU) as an innovative higher education institution, including its origins, establishment, strategy and purpose, curriculum, technology and operations, student support network and funding. It also describes ALU’s ongoing challenges and future prospects. ALU was launched in 2015 by Fred Swaniker, founder and chief executive officer and Khurram Masood, co-founder and chief operating officer. ALU’s vision was to transform Africa by developing and connecting three million high-calibre, ethical and entrepreneurial leaders by 2035. In August 2019, Swaniker and Masood considered how to ensure ALU’s sustainability and its vision. They had already changed ALU’s operational strategy by establishing micro-campuses instead of universities to scale rapidly and avoid regulatory barriers. However, would that be enough to uphold ALU’s vision for 2035? Complexity academic level This case is appropriate for postgraduate-level academic programmes and executive education programmes in management. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

This article investigates the impact of US Direct Investments (foreign direct investments [FDI]) as channel of international technology transfer on total factor productivity (TFP) of Algeria from 1969 to 2019. We use export diversification distance as relative backwardness (GAP) and revealed comparative advantage (RCA) as trade concentration term. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach is used to check for the long-run relationship. The results show that considering the sector of investment, the TFP is differently impacted. Indeed, the impact of FDI of hydrocarbon activities on TFP is negative and statistically significant. As for the out-hydrocarbons sector, the impact is positive with statistical significance. The negative impact of FDI in the scope of hydrocarbons sector can be mainly explained by the effect of industry concentration. This is supported empirically by the negative effect of RCA. We also find that large GAP has negative effect on TFP, contrasting the theory of the advantage of the relative backwardness.

This paper considers resource coordination in production systems featuring the presence of enterprises and organizations pursuing social, health-related, educational, cultural, and environmental aims, or social enterprises (SEs). The resource coordination problem is one of allocating and distributing resources towards these aims. By their very nature, these goals are very close to the Polanyian idea of the primacy of society over the self-regulating market. We ask what the specificities of organisations that pursue social aims are, and what coordination mechanisms underpin their production. The premise is that individuals are driven by plural motivations, including pro-social motivations besides self-interested ones, thus requiring a plurality of coordination mechanisms. The paper suggests that SEs make principal use of cooperative pacts based on norms of reciprocity, but include also market and state-led coordination, both at organisational and systemic levels. We consider specific institutional solutions in support of cooperation and reciprocity. These are: combined rules on profit and asset distribution, surplus accumulation and redistribution, and multi-stakeholding.

Social enterprises have attracted increased attention from both researchers and practitioners around the world. In the social enterprise context, scaling social impact is considered the main currency or key performance metric. Two overarching social impact scaling strategies are organizational growth strategy and ecosystem growth strategy. However, to date, little cumulative knowledge exists on these two social impact scaling strategies. To address this issue, this article conducts a systematic review of 111 peer-reviewed articles. It identifies and discusses key insights into organizational growth strategy and ecosystem growth strategy as a means to scale social impact in social enterprises. Based on these findings, the current article also develops a framework to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of social impact scaling strategies in social enterprises. Finally, the review identifies gaps in the existing literature and discusses a comprehensive agenda for future research. JEL Classification: L26, L31, O35, M13

This teaching case based on real people and events describe a critical decision point during the nascent stage of entrepreneurial venture called Allied Systems Integration Solutions in May 2019. This data governance case explores the challenges with centralizing client data in an effort to help health practitioners cope with the opioid use crisis. Readers are asked to put themselves into the shoes of the protagonists who must make difficult operational decisions related to these data governance and behaviour management questions. This case is derived from participant observation of eight entrepreneurial mentoring sessions with the protagonist entrepreneurs. Detailed notes of participant observation sessions were maintained and qualitative data were analysed for the purpose of creating this business case. This case is intended for upper year undergraduate, or MBA courses. In particular, it should be used in curricula exploring the complexities of real-world data governance decisions, managing the trade-offs between operational efficiencies and data protection. This case would be most suited to courses in Management Information Systems, Database Management and Operations Management.

Research question: With the help of an instrumental research case on a social enterprise in India that provides a solution to those with none or limited access to fresh drinking water, this study aims to explore how trust helps create social value. Links to theory: At the theoretical level, the study draws upon ‘trust’ and ‘social value’ literature to examine how a social entrepreneur utilized trust as an enabler to creating social value. Phenomenon studied: The case developed deeper understanding of the phenomena of ‘trust helps creating social value’. Type of the case: It is an instrumental research case study that helps explore the phenomenon and draws connections between trust and social value creation if any. Case context: The case context is making affordable drinking water available to all, especially the community of people who are deprived of it. Findings: Conducting a series of in-depth interviews with the founder, we developed a better understanding of how the social entrepreneur used trust as a resource to create social value in the context of affordable drinking water. The findings showed how the protagonist (founder) worked on gaining trust of his beneficiaries and stakeholders to create social value. Findings also revealed the enablers and deterrents of trust in social value creation. Discussions: Our study shows how trust as a resource creates social value. In the context of our study, it contributes on how a social entrepreneur is creating social value not only by making affordable drinking water accessible to all but also deliver other social value creation benefits. The study brings out legitimacy, technology and social network as its enablers. The study also intends to fill the knowledge gap on how firms create social value by building trust with stakeholders and beneficiaries. Since little is known about trust even at the level of beneficiaries and stakeholders, our study aims to develop a better understanding of the phenomenon.

Do donors seek out potentially adverse information about organizations making fundraising appeals? Do they react when it is readily available? Do they draw negative inferences when critical information is not available? To answer these questions, we consider previously unexamined large-scale natural experiments involving U.S. charitable organizations—tax-exempt organizations that file Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990. Using standard difference-in-differences designs, we find that donors penalize organizations with high fundraising costs when there is mandatory disclosure or involuntary disclosure by a third-party reporter. Organizations with lower fundraising costs fundraise more successfully in the presence of these disclosures. The contrast with donors’ behavior when such information is not available suggests that donors do not draw correct inferences when potentially consequential information is not disclosed. Disclose-on-request requirements, in contrast, apparently do not have any significant impact on donors’ or organizations’ behavior. We then sketch implications for the regulation of donations to charities and their modern cousins, such as crowdfunding and social enterprise organizations.

Social equilibriums can be both positively and negatively affected through the actions of social enterprises and social entrepreneurs and have both intended and unintended consequences. Many learners have considered only the light, or positive, viewpoint of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship. There are also potential dark aspects. In our increasingly ‘woke’ world, it is critical that we spur discussion of both light and dark issues. To deepen critical thinking about the implications of giving to ‘do good’, learners should consider potential dark motivations to increase the social enterprise’s competitive advantage through ‘green-washing’ tactics which could create dynamics of dependency, unneeded/unwanted assistance, or the disruption of local economies. The participants in the exercise experience the consequences of their decisions along with debrief opportunities for dark-light language. The authors provide a suggested pre-exercise reading assignment to prepare learners, the exercise and debrief guidance.

This paper brings together the fields of social entrepreneurship and social networks by using the social network analysis approach to map the evolution of the network of a social enterprise in Indi...

In recent years ‘social enterprises’ have become important partners in the delivery of key public services such as healthcare. However, little is known about how healthcare social enterprises contribute to public service provision in the health sector. We analyzed 172 social enterprises from four continents involved in healthcare to assess the types of interventions, processes, and roles they play responding to rapidly evolving healthcare systems. We found that they are engaged broadly in three dimensions of health service provision: improving access to health services; improving the quality of health services; and building public health capacity. We contribute to social policy theory by enhancing understanding of the micro-level interventions of social enterprises in the healthcare sector and articulating new dimensions of NPG that include co-innovation, co-lobbying, and co-integration in the context of healthcare.

The growth of research studies on social enterprise over the past ten years has been on a steep positive trend. Social enterprise is commonly defined as the organizational pursuit of blending socia...

For decades, the cooperative enterprise (CE) produces market goods and/or provides services in the interest to its members, such as communities, customers, and suppliers. The upsurge of interest in social enterprises, and their balancing of social and economic interests, has also led to a renewed interest in CEs, often seen as a specific type of social enterprise. However, from an organizational perspective, this renewed interest has been both limited and scattered over a variety of fields. In this paper, we systematically review papers on CE in the mainstream organizational literature, defined as literature in the fields of economics, business, management and sociology. Our review integrates and synthesizes the current topics in the mainstream organizational literature and provides a number of avenues for future research. In addition, we compare our findings in the organizational literature to the social issues literature as these appeared to be quite complimentary. We found multilevel studies, determination of social impact—in particular measurable impact, managerial practices for sustainable (organisational) development, and the entrepreneurial opportunity generation process as the four key avenues for future research.

Nonprofit organizations (NPO) have suffered from two interrelated bottlenecks: lack of funds and difficulties to grow and operate at scale. Business model innovation (BMI) has been found to be important to overcome those bottlenecks, but the extant literature is limited and lacks a solid empirical foundation. To explore this topic, we conducted a retrospective analysis of a single case study, tracking the evolution of an organization's business model as it went from being a traditional, donation-based NPO, to a dynamic sales-driven social enterprise (SE). As a result, the organization gained financial autonomy, scaled up operations and increased impact. Our findings add to the literature by identifying BMI change drivers and outcomes. We show how a platform-inspired business model can enhance value creation and value capture in a SE.

This paper is derived from a study of the mission statements of a sample of 100 United Kingdom social enterprises. The purpose of the research was to reveal what insight such organisational artefac...

Based on interviews with key stakeholder groups of social enterprises in Hungary, democratic practices in decision making were seen as important features of social enterprises. However, there were ...

COVID-19 has overwhelmed and stretched existing healthcare infrastructure in both developed and developing economies and pushed governmental response mechanisms to the brink. Globally, governments elicited the call for corporate support, asking social entrepreneurs and social business ventures to organise efforts to build voluntary support for the large-scale response needed during the sudden lockdown disruptions. By April 2020, 26.5 million jobs were lost in the US alone (Lambert, 2020), global stocks plummeted at least 25% and gross domestic product (GDP) contracted significantly for all countries. With reduced domestic demand for non-food goods, reduced foreign demand for US goods exports, supply-chain disruptions, and plant closures, the manufacturing sector saw a huge decline (Reinicke, 2020). Governments all over the world announced massive stimulus packages. The US has approved $2 trillion financial support to combat the economic downturn so far (Emma & Scholtes, 2020) and EU finance ministers have recently approved €500 billion in stimulus measures (Riley, 2020). It is estimated that the global economy will grow at -3 percent in 2020. This article sheds light on the role of social enterprises in addressing the societal problems caused by COVID-19. The authors highlight the efforts of virtual and collaborative associations who seek to swiftly recognise issues and develop solutions, which create social value and alleviate the plights of suffering communities. This article sheds light on the role of social enterprises in addressing the societal problems caused by COVID-19. The authors highlight the efforts of virtual and collaborative associations who seek to swiftly recognise issues and develop solutions, which create social value and alleviate the plights of suffering communities. The authors place emphasis upon the role of the social entrepreneur in developing a way forward in these challenging times and present a contemporary conceptualisation of the social entrepreneur in the form of an “avatar” and the impact that this may have on social enterprise.

The purpose of this article is to offer a synopsis of the progression in scholarly research in social business enterprises (SBE). The study entails bibliometric analysis, and bibliographic data vis...

Social entrepreneurship (SE) is acknowledged as a valuable tool for tackling social problems. Whereas SE intention (SEI) is considered an important prerequisite for founding a social enterprise, em...

In this Special Issue, we hope to reframe the conversation about context and bring back context to the front and centre of our way of knowing and theorizing in the field of social entrepreneurship....

Learning outcomes In the light of the case and the accompanying case questions, the students should understand the theoretical underpinnings of the Blue ocean strategy. Application and critical evaluation of analytical frameworks associated with the blue ocean strategy. Role of political, socio-cultural and technological factors undermining the success of any endeavor aimed at bringing about innovation in education in Pakistan. The critical balance that social enterprises need to develop between their commercial and social impact goals. Case overview/synopsis Founded in early 2014, LearnOBots was a young social enterprise spearheaded by Shamyl Bin Mansoor and Faisal Laghari. The venture aimed to provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-based, tech supported experiential learning to young kids, which would eventually help improve the educational standards in the country. This case presents the complex dilemma of an enterprise, which achieved market traction to its novel business idea but soon faced changing competitive dynamics that posed a challenge to the uncontested blue ocean strategy that the venture attempted to create. The case is a rich description of the idiosyncrasies that an innovative startup faces in emerging markets context. It gives an insight on the balancing act that social enterprises need to achieve between their business goals and social impact aspirations. Complexity academic level This case is geared toward undergraduate students enrolled in courses of strategy and entrepreneurship. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.