An Empirical Investigation and Conceptual Model of Perceptions, Support, and Barriers to Marketing in Social Enterprises in Bangladesh

Abstract

Existing studies on social enterprises offer conflicting and contrasting perspectives on the impact of social enterprises on developing countries. Although several studies focused on social enterprises in developing countries, an empirical study that examines how social enterprises develop marketing strategies in an increasingly interconnected digital marketing environment is lacking. The current study empirically investigated the effects of consumer perceptions on social enterprises’ marketing strategies in a developing country and, in particular, the perceptions of, and barriers to, social enterprises in Bangladesh. Drawing on the technology–organisation–environment framework and a social constructionist perspective, 22 in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals from social enterprises. The emergent data were analysed using thematic analysis. The current study proposed an enabler and impediment social enterprise conceptual framework. The present study suggests that social enterprise engenders self-reliance and community empowerment, however, technological imbalance and infrastructures are the key impediments to adoption of effective social enterprise. Our analysis contributes to the theory of social enterprises’ marketing strategies and barriers, and suggests practical lessons in managing social enterprises and the development of marketing strategies

External Support for Elderly Care Social Enterprises in China: A Government-Society-Family Framework of Analysis

“…The Social Impact Incubator is of great significance to the early development of social enterprises and the realization of their mixed goals [ 2 ]. Community Empowerment enables social enterprises to access more community resources [ 31 ].…”

“…This makes it extremely easy for a social enterprise to engage in goal task drift and become faced with the dilemma of social enterprise dual goals [ 30 ]. Some scholars believe that infrastructure is an important obstacle to the survival and development of social enterprises [ 31 ]. Faced with these obstacles, the local government’s support to social enterprises is very effective [ 32 ].…”

Strategic marketing approaches impact on social enterprises

“…The social strategic marketing approach can help managers by allowing SEs to formulate marketing strategies (Srivetbodee et al , 2017) to boost social impact. Besides, strategic marketing development is more challenging for SEs due to their social mission (Islam et al , 2021). Our decomposition of strategic marketing can help minimize such complexity by considering the commercial/social/societal performance of compensatory/transformative enterprises.…”

“…Marketing is a promising area for improving the effectiveness of social enterprise (SE) management (Pinheiro et al , 2021; Bandyopadhyay and Ray, 2019a; Satar et al , 2016). Some of these studies focus on entrepreneurial marketing (Ghods, 2019), responsible marketing (Bandyopadhyay and Ray, 2019b), social marketing (Roy and Goswami, 2020), macromarketing (Kravets et al , 2020) and consumer perceptions and behavior (Islam et al , 2021; Tsai et al , 2020). Despite the variety of topics explored, there is still room for another subfield of research: strategic marketing in SEs (Ellis and Derera, 2019a, b).…”

How to Communicate Sustainability: From the Corporate Web to E-Commerce. The Case of the Fashion Industry

“…Luján-Ornelas et al [22] offer us a literature review based on the different aspects of sustainability at each stage: fiber production (environmental and social impacts of cotton, polyester, lyocell, new and more sustainable fibers, etc.) [49]; textile production, paying attention to processes, energy consumption, chemical treatments, etc. ; design; clothing production more focused on social problems, such as low wages [21], safety and technology; commercialization, featuring new business models based on rental schemes and second-hand clothing; subscription services; and, finally, clothing use and end-of-life phases [50,51].…”