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Although the simultaneous presence of multiple ambitions is inherent in hybrid venturing, pursuing social and/or environmental missions while securing commercial viability can generate ambivalence among stakeholders. In this study, we draw on the notion of "holism" to show how venture founders both embrace tensioned ambitions and sustain hybridity during critical venture development phases. Based on 6 years of data on The People's Supermarket in the United Kingdom, we identify three distinct practices— fantasizing, bartering, and conjuring —used by founders to harness tensions productively, without compromising their venture's multiple ambitions. These practices demonstrate the founders' ability to maintain a venture's hybrid nature throughout the ideation, organizational, and scale-up phases, thereby shedding light on the application of "holism" within the realm of hybrid venturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates ethnographically how early-stage impact investors evaluate the credibility of the impact promises made by social entrepreneurs. Uncovering how investors carry out this task beyond observable characteristics and self-reported prosocial intentions, I propose that their evaluation of impact promises centers on four interrelated aspects of the entrepreneurs' behavior: impact metrics, impact track record, impact management, and impact prospects. I articulate these aspects into a framework explaining how credible beliefs about entrepreneurs' impact promises emerge among investors and embolden their investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased importance of SEs in the global marketplace, limited research in social entrepreneurship addresses internationalization, and fewer from a behavioural perspective. We fill this gap by investigating the SE manager's behavioural attributes and their influence on the decision of social entrepreneurs to become international social entrepreneurs (ISEs) through an exploratory design using content analysis and interviews. All social entrepreneurs were driven to address social change by a strong social conscience; however, this research finds that ISEs shared an urgent and personal call to action. This sense of urgency developed from transformative experiences that altered their views of the world and their place within it. Domestic social entrepreneurs were motivated primarily by their social conscience, shared background, and the timing of the social enterprise opportunity, factors previously identified in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of Br’er Rabbit, utilizing wits and the briar patch to escape a harrowing ordeal, was passed down from enslaved Africans to African Americans. From this tale, we learn that the briar patch provides refuge, representing the pillars of humanity – grace, space, time, and opportunity – that support the freedom quest. Likewise, Soulcial Work Praxis (SWP), a wholistic framework for advancing justice, equity, wellness, empowerment, and liberation (JEWEL), seeks to bridge the micro-macro divide and integrate “heads” (reflections), “hearts” (feelings), “hands” (actions), and “soul” (humanity) to transform individuals, relationships, communities, institutions, and environments. As a product of SWP, the Briar Patch Collaboratory (BPC) is a human science, development, and service so(ul)cial enterprise that supports the vision, development, and work of visionary philosophical artivists (VPAs) through training, research, initiatives, and socially innovative enterprise to generate innovative triple bottom-line (social-economic-environmental) solutions to complex bio-psycho-socio-cultural challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community sector performs an important function in providing emergency food relief, yet food insecurity is often a chronic issue due to poverty and social exclusion. Progressive food provision models present opportunities to improve voluntary food relief services that are dominant in many countries. Informed by research with clients indicating a preference for blended service models that go beyond food provision, two government agencies partnered with a social enterprise and academics to pilot a social supermarket model. This research article (a) briefly summarizes international evidence on social supermarkets' characteristics and offerings, (b) describes a process used to collaboratively develop a social supermarket incorporating universal access and social supports, and (c) presents a rubric defining elements of a social supermarket. Applicable to other community sector settings, the rubric emphasizes dignified access and service, plus opportunities for social support and connection, which are important elements in pathways out of food insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a significant challenge for social enterprises (SEs) to scale up their social impact, especially for those in transforming societies such as China, where the ecosystem of SEs remains at a nascent stage of development. Although previous studies have devoted attention to scaling strategies and scaling performance, none of them has examined the relationship between scaling strategies and scaling performance through empirical quantitative analysis. To address this gap, this study utilizes a hypothesis-testing quantitative method, for the first time, to investigate the divergent impact of different scaling strategies on scaling performance and the moderating role of organizational resources. Our results demonstrate that three types of scaling strategies are positively associated with scaling performance, and the magnitude of the linkages descends from knowledge dissemination through organizational growth to contractual partnerships. Additionally, our results reveal that the adequacy of financial and human resources perform as positive moderators, significantly magnifying the contribution of the scaling strategy of organizational growth to scaling performance. The findings provide important implications for SE managers and practitioners, helping them make informed decisions regarding how to choose and implement suitable scaling strategies in Chinese or other similar contexts, while considering the SEs' organizational resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing that the current literature provides a fragmented depiction of impact investor decisions, this article empirically examines if impact investors are focused on financial returns or instead on the social impact generated by social enterprises. To address this research objective a sample of impact investors are surveyed in South Africa, where there is an increasing demand for impact investors to fund initiatives that address the country's many underlying structural deficits and wicked problems. Findings, based on correlational and regression analyses, indicate that variation in the impact investment decision is explained by the financial return motive. This finding resonates with the argument that investors are primarily focused on financial competitiveness and return on their investment. Developing a strong body of evidence that validates the effectiveness of policy in supporting impact investing is pivotal, particularly when given the lack of sustainability of many social enterprises in African and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises, promoted by policymakers as effective and efficient public services producers and deliverers, are increasingly gaining academic focus. This paper explores the state of studies on social enterprise within Public Administration (PA) field, highlighting through a bibliometric analysis a community of 274 scholars contributing to 138 articles, grouped in six research clusters. We discuss three scenarios for SE-PA relationships: separation, cooperation, and integration into public administration & management (PAM) field alongside suggesting a future research agenda for SE in the PAM domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovation is an umbrella concept that allows space for a diverse range of perspectives to co-exist. In this paper, we explore how practitioners negotiate this complexity. Conducting 19 interviews with stakeholders involved in social enterprise and social care in Scotland, we show that almost anything can be conceived of as a social innovation as defined by the European Union. The EU definition can be a useful tool for organizations to demonstrate to funders how and why they are socially innovative. However, in failing to interrogate the power dimension of social innovation, the EU definition neglects any transformative potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises, social entrepreneurship and sustainable business models are increasingly common in sectors where Fair Trade does not have a strong presence (e.g. mobile phones and software). This research asks: To what extent do social and sustainability enterprises and entrepreneurship (SSEEs) in these 'distant' sectors engage the principles of Fair Trade? It draws on an in-depth, multi-method case study of SSEEs in the legal cannabis sector in Portland, Oregon, US. It analyzes data from magazine advertisements, public and industry events, and visits to 85 cannabis retailers. The results suggest that SSEEs in distant sectors may not be engaging some of the principles that are at the heart of Fair Trade. These include transparency, accountability, collaborative price-setting, pre-payment, honouring contracts, inclusive governance and worker organizing. SSEEs appear more engaged with the environment and buy-cotting (privileging) small producers, sustainable businesses and marginalized groups. How can Fair Trade encourage and empower SSEEs in distant sectors to engage more principles of Fair Trade? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovation and social enterprise are two major factors in addressing the challenges of population ageing since both are aimed at solving social problems. One of these challenges involves providing quality care services for the elderly. However, few studies have analysed how social enterprises can promote or manage social innovations in this sector. This research therefore studies said relationship, paying particular attention to the for-profit and non-profit nature of social enterprises. Specifically, to test the hypotheses, we use data from a survey of nursing homes in southern Spain, where care services are expanding with the support of welfare state social policies. The results show that non-profit social enterprises tend to develop more social innovations in care services, and that the social mission and participative governance positively influence the implementation of social innovations in this activity sector. Consequently, implications for social policies are suggested to better meet the needs of the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars of organizations see social enterprise as a promising approach to advancing social justice but neglect to scrutinize the normative foundations and limitations of this optimism. This article draws on Rawlsian political philosophy to investigate whether and how social enterprises can support social justice. We propose that this perspective assigns organizations a duty to foster institutional capacity, a concept we define and elaborate. We investigate how this duty might apply specifically to social enterprises, given their characteristic features. We theorize six different mechanisms through which social enterprises might successfully discharge this duty. These results affirm the value of conversation between organizational studies and political philosophy and shed new light on debates regarding social enterprise, institutional theory, and several other topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing academic and policy interest in social enterprises, existing debates fail to answer how these organizations innovate without compromising their social mission. In particular, the mechanisms that assist social enterprises to innovate in line with their mission have been overlooked in the social enterprise literature. Through an empirical study of four social enterprises in Scotland, UK, we focus on Design Thinking and show that, through stimulating the engagement of diverse stakeholders, generating organizational knowledge and challenging traditional power dynamics, Design Thinking assists social enterprises in inducing missionaligned innovation. Through the lens of Intellectual Capital theory, our article shows the applicability of Design Thinking in the field of social entrepreneurship, and draws implications for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurship provides a way of tackling pressing problems by providing solutions to social, environmental, or cultural issues. Whether such solutions are provided by entrepreneurs, start-ups, or various groups, they blend for-profit with a degree of “positive returns to society”, ttherefore their measure of success has expanded metrics, considering various forms of capital, such as financial, human, natural, or intellectual. Social entrepreneurs are typically associated with “third sector”, which include organizations that are neither private sector, nor public sector, such as NGOs, non-profits, charities, social enterprises, voluntary organizations, or co-ops, which dedicate themselves to the betterment of society. Started as rather small “businesses with purpose”, social entreprises are increasingly contributing to their community socio-economic development, and foster sustainable economic growth, by providing goods and services to local populace. With the ultimate goal of creating a framework for theoretical study and a practical blueprint for implementing this business model worldwide, and going beyond their already proven economic viability, our paper aims to evaluate the impact of the social enterprise in the community, as well as explore their potential for scalable and sustainable growth..

The article presents a case study of a social enterprise in Slovenia that offered an innovative social activation program based on collaborative approaches. The characteristics of social activation in Slovenia with the legal context of social entrepreneurship are presented, and the innovative approach to social activation is discussed. The results are based on small qualitative research with two focus groups (with professionals and users of the project) and suggest the great importance of collaborative social work concepts: the individual working project of help and working relationship of co-creation as a potential for better results for users. Both the barriers and supportive factors to the use of collaborative approaches are discussed. Suggestions are made on how to put collaborative social work concepts into practice and how to increase competence for their consistent application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises (SEs) are claimed to be able to address "wicked social problems1" in various policy instruments and governance models. However, doubts have been raised about whether the hybrid nature results in fundamental challenges that could prevent SEs from becoming ideal and sustainable public service organizations. Drawing upon organizational resilience literature, this article reveals two trade‐offs between social and business service qualities when SEs seek long‐term solutions to the challenges in delivering public services. This article argues that SEs—employing different hybrid models, emphasizing social or business service quality—jointly can overcome the trade‐offs to deliver sustainable and accountable public services at the public service contract level and the individual user's level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gloucestershire Gateway Trust (GGT) is a social enterprise initiative in Southwest England focused on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). This article describes a six-year action research collaboration that has sought to support the GGT and its local non-profit organizational partners using a variety of action research methods, including community surveys, Group Level Assessment, Future Creating Workshops, and arts-based methods. The development of a community resident research team (CCRT) model has been a core aspect of this partnership that honours local knowledge and experience while providing training and employment opportunities to local residents. This initiative and the action research partnership described here offer an innovative approach for using AR to support effective community development that could be replicated in a variety of other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: This study aims to explore the ways that social enterprises (SE) create value by embedding themselves in networks through the process of social innovation (SI). The processes of achieving common social missions were studied through selected organizations using an open approach to SI. Novel operational structures as well as unique forms of created value were explored. Design/methodology/approach: Two organizations embedded in local and international networks were studied and were chosen due to their SI profiles. The study was based on qualitative exploratory research. In-depth analysis was conducted through interviews, open discussions, document analysis as well as personal observation to understand the dynamic interrelatedness of the main factors influencing success of SI ventures. Findings: This paper identified the role of SI in SEs embedded in networks. Furthermore, the social value creation processes of these organizations as well as the value they create were explored. Based on the findings, SI is rooted in the personality of the included members of the network. The tools of collaboration are platforms that connect the network members to each other. The embedded organizations apply the concept of community sharing with the aim of social value creation. Research limitations/implications: By focusing mainly on system design principles, the sample consists of mainly those at the core of organizations in facilitator roles, leaving peripheral actor perceptions to be determined by secondhand observations. Originality/value: While providing a general summary of factors influencing SI activities from extent literature, the paper mainly contributes by providing deeper insight into complex models of SI practices used by SEs. The paper further contributes to popularizing the growing role of SI activities in SEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to assess the alignment of South Korea's government-certified social enterprises (GCSEs) with prevailing social enterprise (SE) models, notably the entrepreneurial nonprofit, social cooperative and social business models delineated in the "Emergence of Social Enterprises in Europe" (Defourny and Nyssens, 2012, 2017a, 2017b) and the "principle of interest" frameworks (Defourny et al., 2021). Thereby, it seeks to situate these enterprises within recognized frameworks and elucidate their hybrid identities. Design/methodology/approach: Analyzing panel data from 2016 to 2020 for 259 GCSEs, this study uses tslearn for k-means clustering with dynamic time warping to assess their developmental trajectories and alignment with established SE models, which echoes the approach of Defourny et al. (2021). We probe the "fluid" identities of semi-public sector SEs, integrating Gordon's (2013) notion that they tend to blend various SE traditions as opposed to existing in isolation. Findings: Results indicate that GCSEs do align with prevalent SE frameworks. Furthermore, they represent a spectrum of SE models, suggesting the versatility of the public sector in fostering diverse types of SEs. Originality/value: The concept of a semi-public sector SE model has been relatively uncharted, even though it holds significance for research on SE typologies and public sector entrepreneurship literature. This study bridges this gap by presenting empirical evidence of semi-public SEs and delineating the potential paths these enterprises might take as they amalgamate various SE traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper aims to explore the roles and impact of design in incubating and accelerating social enterprises. It aims to understand design's influence on social enterprise ecosystems and in improving outcomes for social enterprises. Design/methodology/approach: The study used an exploratory, qualitative approach, using case studies and interviews. The comparative case-study methodology was applied to evaluate the influence of design on the development of social enterprises in the UK and South Korea and identify critical issues in their utilisation of design. Empirical data included: in-depth case studies of design utilisation practices (UK = 6; South Korea = 15) and design applications (UK = 2; South Korea = 2) for the growth of social enterprise and its ecosystem; 27 social enterprise/design experts (UK = 17; South Korea = 10); and 22 social enterprises (UK = 12; South Korea = 10). Content and thematic analysis were used to synthesise the findings. Findings: Findings demonstrate the differing influences of design on social enterprise, from improving products/services and business models to enhancing social enterprise ecosystem support and networks. Future directions are suggested for applying design for social enterprise growth, business stage development and systematising interactions between the social enterprise and design sectors. Research limitations/implications: The research is based on case studies from only two countries. Further, the adoption of working definitions of social enterprise in the countries may result in the research underestimating the heterogeneity of social enterprise. Practical implications: The findings contribute to optimising efficient ecosystem development to improve social enterprise competitiveness and innovation. Originality/value: This paper establishes a research foundation on design for social enterprise, offering theoretical and practical insights into its impact on growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine how the fields of social enterprise, social entrepreneurship and social innovation have theorised and applied the concepts of narrative and storytelling. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review and subsequent thematic analysis were used. A keyword search of three databases identified 93 relevant articles that were subsequently reviewed for this paper. Findings: Four main roles for storytelling and narrative were found in the literature: to gain support for social innovation, to inspire social change, to build a social-entrepreneurial identity and to debate the meaning and direction of social innovation itself. Practical implications: Following the literature review, capacities and applications of storytelling and narrative in other, related fields are discussed to highlight practical use cases of storytelling that might currently be underdeveloped in the social enterprise and innovation sectors. Originality/value: The paper argues that the social innovation and enterprise literature predominantly views storytelling as a form of mass communication, while often overlooking its ability to foster communal debate and organise intrapersonal dialogue as possible aspects of strategic thinking and innovation management in social enterprise, social entrepreneurship and social innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises are organisations comprised of two conflicting logics: social and commercial. However, simultaneous commitment to both logics often leads to tensions, making social enterprises fragile organisations at the risk of mission drift. The extant literature on hybridity highlights two important overall strategies – integration and differentiation - for managing tensions. However, integration or differentiation alone can create additional problems, which is especially true in the case of differentiation, creating a situation comparable to black and white, with a salient faultline and heated conflicts. In this inductive qualitative case study, responding to the recent call in the literature on how to mitigate such challenges, we will show that social enterprises could employ two strategies called people circulation and weaving warp and weft to achieve a reintegrated, embedded situation referred as yin and yang with a mitigated faultline and lessened tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social entrepreneurship has gained popularity and our understanding of social entrepreneurship has evolved, insufficient attention has been given to understand the behaviours of consumers, a key stakeholder of social entrepreneurship. Because consumers directly impact the performance of social enterprises, it is imperative to address this research gap. Relying on the theory of planned behaviour, we examine the relationship between consumers' intentions and behaviours when purchasing social enterprise products and services. Moreover, this study explores how consumers' sociodemographic characteristics, such as political ideology, trust towards social entrepreneurship, and household income, influence the relationship between consumers' intentions and behaviours. Based on a sample of randomly selected 972 Korean consumers, this study finds a consumer's intention is positively associated with behaviour, and the positive relationship between intention and action is strengthened when a consumer has a progressive political ideology and higher income level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises (SE) have played a prominent role in overcoming social problems in society and supporting sustainable development. In line with global trends, there is a growing interest of business firms, policymakers, and scholars in and engagement with SEs in emerging economies, such as India, as a promising and viable mechanism to address varied, complex, and widespread social development problems. In the wake of the increasing engagement of scholars and businesses, it is crucial to collate, review and synthesise scholarly research to develop a holistic understanding of SE operation in a developing economy set up. This article presents a systematic literature review of scholarly research on Indian SEs. The study analysed 101 peer-reviewed articles published over the last three decades, elaborates the evolution of research, presents a business model canvas of Indian SEs, extends the understanding of the interplay of value systems of society, growth of social entrepreneurship culture, and emerging market economies. The scholarly research is classified into six core research themes, major findings are reported and research gaps are identified to provide directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis research aims to find out why visitors tend to revisit social enterprises employing people with disabilities. The research used an exploratory sequential mixed methods design to achieve this goal. The social enterprise examined in this study is a restaurant where people with mental disabilities are employed. First, qualitative research was conducted through face-to-face interviews with visitors (n = 20). Qualitative findings have revealed four themes explaining the relationships between revisit intention and its antecedents. Secondly, quantitative research was conducted to test the hypotheses developed based on the qualitative findings and the relevant literature. Quantitative data were collected from the visitors of the social enterprise employing employees with disabilities (n = 361). According to the findings, empathic concern and pro-disability attitude positively and significantly affected consumers’ intention to revisit the social enterprise. Both dimensions of empathy, empathic concern and perspective-taking, positively and significantly affected the pro-disabled attitude. Considering that a perspective explaining consumer behavior in social enterprises has not been developed in the literature, this research contributes to explaining consumer behavior in social enterprises by creating the tripartite model with qualitative and quantitative data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing research interest in the social impact of social enterprises (SEs), limited attention has been paid to the antecedents of social impact. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of 52 extant studies that examine the antecedents of SEs' social impact. The paper synthesizes the antecedents identified from prior work and categorizes them into individual- and organizational-level factors. Based on the findings, we develop a future research agenda to advance our knowledge of the antecedents of SEs' social impact. A key research opportunity is to explore the social impact antecedents related to the institutional and external environment of SEs, an area that has been overlooked in the literature. In terms of practical implications, the study can be used to consider which factors policy makers and practitioners should focus on to develop strategies for improving the social impact of existing and future SEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies a hierarchical clustering approach to identify social enterprise models that have appeared in a setting of public sector-led incubation. Within such a context, a high degree of conformity ought to be apparent due to the coercive isomorphic pressures associated with public sector patronage. We nominate South Korea for our analysis, given that the rising number of social enterprises in the country is closely related to a regulatory intervention. Based on an analysis of 468 social enterprises, we find, contrary to expectations, that distinct clusters of government-certified social enterprises have emerged, namely social utility niche, job outsourcing, market opportunity, and integrated balanced models. We typologize these models according to their strategic orientation, mission focus, and institutional alignment. In doing so, we contribute to social enterprise research by illustrating how organizational pluralism may manifest when the growth of a population of social enterprises is directly linked to public sector intervention and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource acquisition is important for social enterprises' resilience. Prior studies have explored social enterprises' hybridity and resource acquisition outcomes, but have ignored funders' heterogeneity. This paper examines how the identities of both social enterprises and financial resource providers are associated with financial resource acquisition. We specifically study how social enterprises' social and financial identities are related to the acquisition of financial resources. Using an international entrepreneurship database (2014–2019), we find that social enterprises receive financial support from equity investors in a similar way as pure for-profits, while social enterprises receive less support from philanthropic donors, compared to pure nonprofits. We discuss the implications for social entrepreneurship research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]