Purpose While the literature has described social entrepreneurs as overwhelmingly occupying a pivotal role in social entrepreneurship (S-ENT) process, there is a high inconsistency prevailing with respect to entrepreneurial traits, attitudes and skills of social entrepreneurs. One explanation for this may be the lack of a suitable scale measuring entrepreneurship orientation of social entrepreneurial individuals. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by proposing an initial assessment tool for individual S-ENT orientation (ISEO). Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods research design, along with a two-stage Delphi process, helped in generating appropriate constructs for ISEO. While the items for the first dimension of scale were directly derived from the Delphi study, the items of the remaining dimensions were mainly found based on the three individual entrepreneurial orientation dimensions presented by Bolton and Lane. By means of exploratory factor analysis, the final examination of the ISEO items was undertaken through a survey of 71 social entrepreneurs across India. The process eventually resulted in reliable and valid measures for four dimensions of ISEO. Findings The scale-development process eventually resulted in a 13-item scale, measuring four dimensions of ISEO (social passion, innovativeness, risk-taking and pro-activeness). By developing a set of relevant ISEO indicators, the study answers the call for a scale development of ISEO in S-ENT literature. Research limitations/implications There is a need to further validate this instrument among other stakeholders (students) as well as in samples with different demographic characteristics across different regions of the country and the world. To further evaluate the reliability and validity properties and to confirm the newly established subscales and their relationship with the ISEO construct, there is need for conducting a confirmatory factor analysis using larger sample sizes. Practical implications The measurement of SEO at an individual level will assist in S-ENT education, training and development of present and prospective social entrepreneurs, as well as assist individuals who want to assess the strength of their orientation towards S-ENT. The understanding of ISEO at the individual level will be equally useful for S-ENT incubators, the government and other S-ENT stakeholders who are considering supporting S-ENT proposals. Originality/value The paper is the first to develop an ISEO scale which is based on empirical data in S-ENT field.

Purpose There have been global upsurge in the social enterprise research & practice considering social enterprise as a rapidly growing thought worldwide. The renewed significance of social enterprises (SE’s) has arisen primarily on account of their assumed potential in solving a range of social problems. The evidences supporting the budding role of SE’s in fostering sustained socio-economic development of regions & communities across globe are evolving continuously. Even though, social entrepreneurship & SE’s have remained central thought provoking domain in the realm of scholarly investigation for a past couple of decades, the emerging literature on SE’s & their role in economic development is riddled with theoretical inconsistencies & definitional controversies. Thus, very little is known about functioning & management of SE’s. For the sake of advancing the field, the purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the critical success factors (CSF’s) of SE’s operating in different social settings in India. Further, a conceptual model is developed incorporating different factors of social enterprise operation in an integrated framework. Design/methodology/approach Based on the review of the extant literature, three categories of success factors comprising a total of 38 success factors for SE’s were initially identified. Under each category, the success factors were then classified and reduced to appropriate numbers based upon their importance to SE’s and their repeated manifestations in the literature, making a total of 13 CSF’s under all 3 categories. Based on these 3 categories of CSF’s, a conceptual model was developed. Findings The study determines thirteen critical factors as contributing to the success of social enterprises: (1) Business planning skills (2) entrepreneurship orientation; (3) leadership; (4) networking; (5) Innovative financing (6) triple bottom line planning; (7) social enterprise marketing; (8) community engagement; (9) human capital; (10) organizational culture; (11) Social Impact Evaluation (12) Frugal innovation & (13) Government support. Originality/value The paper presents a theoretical research model incorporating factors and determinants of social enterprise success to direct a future research agenda. The paper can further be used by researchers to empirically test critical success factors of social enterprises. Moreover, practitioners can also gain benefits from the conceptual framework & promote social entrepreneurship.

Purpose Emerging markets are witnessing rapid changes in their economy owing to the ongoing liberalization and globalization. India, as one of the emerging markets in south Asia, is also experiencing a dramatic change in its business ecosystem. This poses huge opportunities to the companies, both start-ups and established ones. In this direction, the business model innovation offers a strategic renewal mechanism. The study aims to explore the practices of an online transport network company (OLA) creating a distinctive place for itself in Indian taxi service sector. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, an exploratory case study of an India-based online transport company (OLA) business model innovation is reported. Findings This paper reveals that OLA has been able to gain competitive advantage in the Indian emerging market by developing an innovative business model with its distinctive features of personalised customer service, asset sharing, usage-based pricing, collaborative ecosystem, agile and adaptive organising and successful expansion strategies. Research limitations/implications This study adds to current knowledge concerning the theoretical foundations and antecedents of business model innovation as a competitive advantage. The paper is explorative in nature because the analysis is mostly based on literature review. Furthermore, in consideration of the analysis of business model of a single company, further research is required to generalize the results. Practical implications The understanding of the intricacies of business model innovation can be of great concern to existing and prospective managers and entrepreneurs of emerging markets. Originality/value The paper discusses the features of innovative business models and how firms can make their business models more relevant to the competitive markets. As such, the study is hopeful to aid practitioners engaged in the pursuit of beating the competition with innovation driven business models.

Social entrepreneurship is relatively a new concept within social sciences. Like the case with any newly emerging field, social entrepreneurship is confronting the challenges of justifying the use of new constructs and hence the challenge of generating new knowledge and insights. Till date, the field of social entrepreneurship has majorly been consented as a multidisciplinary approach to social problem solving. In this regard, researchers are attempting to take insights from different disciplines in an effort towards delimiting the scope and context of social entrepreneurship. However, social entrepreneurship is projected or seen as sharing much in common with business management and entrepreneurship. As such, the different approaches of management domain find high appropriateness for application, explanation and further expansion of this field. In light of the above and on the basis of a few qualitative case studies conducted in the western countries till date, the paper attempts to gain critical insights about the use of marketing concepts in social enterprises.

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