Overcoming the theoretical duality on social enterprise formation

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>Nowadays, creation and discovery theories are the two main theoretical approaches supporting the studies on the emergence of enterprises and some scholars analyze these theories in isolation. In addition, studies that investigate the emergence of social enterprises based on these theories together are scarce. This paper aims to analyze if and how discovery and creation theories can coexist in the formation process of social enterprises.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>A multi-case study based on semi-structured interviews with the founders of eight Brazilian social enterprises was conducted.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>From the results, it is identified that there is a continuous process between discoveries and creations that lead to the maturation of the initial idea and, consequently, to the formation of a social enterprise. Therefore, a continuous process model between discovery and creation of opportunities in the formation of a social enterprise (i.e. a mixed theoretical approach) is proposed, going beyond a theoretical duality between creation or discovery.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>This study helps to overcome limitations inherent in both discovery and creation theories, proposing a mixed theoretical approach. This new theoretical approach praises the existence of new paths to understand the emergence of social enterprises, by overcoming the theoretical duality between creation or discovery of opportunities, i.e. a new understanding of an integrating process rather than a dichotomous one.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Tactics of Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Ways of Operating in the Contested Terrain of Green Architecture

“…Yet, some researchers find this dualism flawed because entrepreneurship presupposes the presence of both a context and the use of imagination (Crawford et al, 2016). Nascimento and Salazar (2020) overcome the dualism between the creation and discovery views by suggesting that the processes of discovery and creation are intertwined. Thus, according to Nascimento and Salazar (2020), entrepreneurial creation and discovery are thus mutually reinforcing processes that together help create new social ventures.…”

“…The understanding of opportunities in sustainable entrepreneurship should be broadened to encompass opportunities as the possibility of developing new practices in everyday settings. If we look at opportunities within a social logic, then we can see that the processes of discovery and creation are intertwined (Nascimento & Salazar, 2020). Nascimento and Salazar (2020) overcome the dualism between the creation and discovery of opportunities in a social entrepreneurship context, but research on sustainable entrepreneurship can also benefit from overcoming this dichotomy.…”

“…If we look at opportunities within a social logic, then we can see that the processes of discovery and creation are intertwined (Nascimento & Salazar, 2020). Nascimento and Salazar (2020) overcome the dualism between the creation and discovery of opportunities in a social entrepreneurship context, but research on sustainable entrepreneurship can also benefit from overcoming this dichotomy. The fact that creation and discovery intersect is also reflected in the case of green architecture.…”

Dos empreendimentos sociais aos negócios de impacto: Examinando o debate teórico rumo à inovação social

“…Mais recentemente emergem os debates sobre os "Negócios Sociais" trazendo consigo abordagens que se intitulam como novas (Nascimento & Salazar, 2020), que não necessariamente dialogam com as tradições anteriormente apresentadas. Tais empreendimentos envolvem diferentes formatos organizacionais que atuam nessa interface entre o econômico e o social, fazendo emergir novas nomenclaturas para esses empreendimentos (Barki et al, 2020;França Filho et al, 2020).…”

Strategic marketing approaches impact on social enterprises

“…Social entrepreneurship is defined as a phenomenon that encompasses actors and results; that is, it occurs when an SE, through its operations, creates social value (Nascimento and Salazar, 2020a). SEs operate on social problems (Hockerts, 2017) such as poverty, drug abuse, unemployment, gender discrimination, climate issues, among others, in which social entrepreneurs create and discover opportunities to solve them (Nascimento and Salazar, 2020b). SEs' relevance to society's development is highlighted since they are directly responsible for creating social value (Ruskin et al , 2016).…”