A Quest for a Sustainable Social Enterprise Model: The Case of Amphawa Chaipattananurak, the Kingdom of Thailand

Abstract

The social enterprise concept, a business with specific social objectives, has been questioned by scholars and practitioners for its sustainability. More importantly, a paucity of research exists on how a social enterprise can be sustainable, indicating the necessity of developing a sustainable model of social enterprise, particularly in the Asian context. Filling in the gap in the literature, the present study’s prime objective is to explore a sustainable social enterprise model. The bodies of knowledge on social enterprise and sustainable enterprise are reviewed, followed by identifying a sustainable social enterprise model for exploration. The identified model is among the few sustainable social enterprise models available, thus making it appropriate for the exploration. To explore the model, the phenomenological paradigm is adopted. The study uses the case study approach with open-ended, semi-structured interview methods as well as documentation to explore a case enterprise called Amphawa Chaipattananurak (ACCP) in Thailand. To ensure data validity, the data, method, investigator, and theory triangulation methods are adopted. Ninety-five stakeholder informants were interviewed, ranging from the management team, staff, community people, and visitors to customers. In terms of analysis, the working analytical framework is adopted to analyze the collected data. Findings indicate that the ACCP practices and outcomes are consistent with those of the sustainable social enterprise model, indicating the model’s applicability. Based on the findings, a refined sustainable social enterprise model is derived. Limitations, future research directions, theoretical contributions and implications, and managerial implications are also discussed.

Conceptualizing the Role of Social Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Triple Bottom Line in the Social Enterprise Context: Developing Country Perspective

“…Most of the research has been limited to defining the concept and addressing conceptual ambiguities, differentiating social entrepreneurship from the mainstream of commercial entrepreneurship [15,16], and examining the value creation process. While there are several studies on the factors driving SE to accomplish its goals from varying perspectives, the knowledge is still generally dispersed and fragmented [17]. Third, there is a knowledge gap in understanding how social entrepreneurship drives the process of achieving these triple bottom line goals and in identifying what the antecedents and drivers of the process are [18].…”