Seizing the moment—Strategy, social entrepreneurship, and the pursuit of impact

Abstract

Research Summary Social entrepreneurship continues to grow as an impactful phenomenon in the world and as a rich stream of research. Given this exciting growth, there is value in proactively exploring how social entrepreneurship scholarship can thrive and “seize the moment” as it matures. This special issue solicited papers at the intersection of strategy and social entrepreneurship in hopes of providing a road map for future scholarship. This editorial introduces and integrates the special issue paper contributions across three emergent themes: (1) diverse actor characteristics, (2) competing environmental factors, and (3) heterogeneous outcomes. We organize a research agenda that extends from the special issue, which we hope will motivate a new wave of research that derives benefits from the integration of strategy and social entrepreneurship scholarship. Managerial Summary Social entrepreneurship is increasingly common as business leaders seek to integrate social and/or environmental objectives into its economic activities. With this growth comes the need to examine how social entrepreneurs strategically manage the intertwining of social and economic activities. The papers in this special issue make progress in this regard, examining how differences in actors involved in social entrepreneurship and the environments in which they operate shape social/economic outcomes. The papers in this special issue make important progress in bringing strategy concepts to bear, and lay the groundwork for future research that helps better explain how, why, and to what degree social entrepreneurs have a positive impact. This special issue thus offers insights for researchers, policymakers, educators, and entrepreneurs about how to sustain impactful social/environmental activities over time.

Doing good while making profits: A typology of business models for social ventures

“…First, our study contributes to the literature on social ventures and social entrepreneurship (Saebi et al, 2019;Vedula et al, 2022;Williams et al, 2023). Studies on social ventures have claimed that a key challenge for social ventures is to combine multiple organizational goals and to address the tensions that come with it (Battilana & Lee, 2014).…”

“…As time progressed, scholars shifted their focus toward exploring the trade-offs between social and commercial goals, as well as the hybrid nature of social ventures (Battilana et al, 2015;Battilana & Lee, 2014;Vedula et al, 2022). Most recently, the growing adoption of social goals by organizations small and large has generated increased interest in topics situated at the intersection of strategy and social entrepreneurship, as evidenced by the Special Issue featured in this journal (Williams et al, 2023).…”

“…Given the widespread adoption of social goals by a large variety of organizations today (Williams et al,, 2023), we believe it is timely to address this gap and therefore we ask: What are the strategic business model choices that social ventures engage with, and how do these choices affect the value creation and value capture of the venture?…”

“…Our study contributes to two literatures. First, we contribute to the literature on social entrepreneurship (Saebi et al, 2019;Vedula et al, 2022;Williams et al, 2023) by bringing to the fore and shedding light on the business model choices within the realm of a social venture. We do so, by adding the concept of "target constituencies" as distinct from revenue-generating customers as an extension to the business model concept.…”

Guest editorial: Sustainable entrepreneurship: a new approach in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Future research should explore green finance and sustainable investment to understand the availability, accessibility and impact of green financing options on entrepreneurs (DiBella et al , 2022; Nascimento et al , 2023) highlight the influence of impact investing on sustainable entrepreneurship by shaping entrepreneurial activities and outcomes. Williams et al (2023) and Marti et al (2023) integrate strategy and social entrepreneurship scholarship, providing a multidisciplinary review of sustainable investing's impact. Nguyen et al (2022) offer insights into green financing practices in commercial banks, advancing green business initiatives.…”