An Identity-Based Approach to Social Enterprise

Abstract

Social enterprise has gained widespread acclaim as a tool for addressing social and environmental problems. Yet because social enterprises integrate social welfare and commercial logics, they face the challenge of pursuing frequently conflicting goals. Studies have begun to address how established social enterprises can manage these tensions, but we know little about how, why, and with what consequences social entrepreneurs mix competing logics as they create new organizations. To address this gap, we develop a theoretical model based in identity theory that helps to explain (1) how commercial and social welfare logics become relevant to entrepreneurship, (2) how different types of entrepreneurs perceive the tension between these logics, and (3) what implications this has for how entrepreneurs recognize and develop social enterprise opportunities. Our approach responds to calls from organizational and entrepreneurship scholars to extend existing frameworks of opportunity recognition and development to better account for social enterprise creation.

Social Enterprise as a Catalyst for Sustainable Local and Regional Development

“…Social enterprise has two purposes: meeting the principle of profit maximization and addressing social and environmental purposes, which includes reinvesting in the community [26,[30][31][32]. These two purposes are aimed to be fulfilled simultaneously, as both allow profit gain in a market economy [31,33].…”

“…It builds local governance, including informal networks among associations [84]. Motivation-based social capital emerges from social entrepreneurship, and it comprises organizational and activity-based social capital [32,123]. It especially deals with embedded characteristics to understand regional and community needs in the process of social innovation.…”

Diseño y validación de un test de evaluación del potencial en emprendimiento social

“…Este conocimiento comprende el reconocimiento y la interpretación de la información que recibe el emprendedor para determinar si valora su desarrollo. Dos elementos importantes dentro de la identificación de oportunidades son: el conocimiento que se tenga sobre el área a desarrollar, pues a mayor conocimiento, el emprendedor puede determinar mejor su viabilidad y las relaciones sociales con las que cuente y así dirigir su atención hacia oportunidades en su entorno (Wry y York, 2017).…”

“…Si bien estas características son variadas debido a que el emprendedor social busca los objetivos empresariales para alcanzar un bien común, se buscaron características que se consideran relevantes para determinar si la persona tiene un perfil que le permita iniciar con una labor que favorece la combinación de lo social y lo económico (Navarro y Climent, 2010). Entre las características identificadas se encuentran: (1) la pasión por el emprendimiento, como un factor de motivación hacia las situaciones difíciles (Vallerand, 2010;Baum y Locke, 2004;Cardon, Glauser y Murnieks, 2017), (2) la orientación a la sustentabilidad, por su interés en la creación y explotación de nuevos bienes y servicios, orientados al bienestar ambiental y social (Hossain, Saleh y Drennan, 2017¸ DiVito y Bohnsack, 2017) y (3) la identificación de oportunidades, como paso fundamental para el desarrollo de ideas y una de las más importantes habilidades para su éxito (Sahai y Frese, 2017, Wry y York, 2017.…”

Funding Financial Inclusion: Institutional Logics and the Contextual Contingency of Funding for Microfinance Organizations

“…A unique feature of the logics approach, though, is the recognition that logics are also internalized by organization members and thus affect how managers allocate their attention, interpret external stimuli, and make decisions (Thornton & Ocasio, 1999). As scholars increasingly come to recognize that organizations face institutionally complex environments that comprise conflicting external demands, the link between logics and managerial cognition has taken on heightened importance for understanding organizational behavior (Battilana & Dorado, 2010;Greenwood, Raynard, Kodeih, Micelotta, & Lounsbury, 2011;Wry & York, 2015;Zhao, Fisher, Lounsbury, & Miller, 2016). In this regard, there is evidence that logics affect which external influences a firm attends and responds to (Pache & Santos, 2013), while also guiding its action across diverse institutional contexts (Vasudeva et al, 2013).…”