Social enterprise marketing: review of literature and future research agenda

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review existing literature on marketing in social enterprises (SEs). It identifies major trends and issues and highlights gaps in the existing knowledge base on social enterprise marketing (SEM). Design/methodology/approach Relevant articles on SEM were searched, following the PRISMA framework, in online databases using keywords and phrases like “marketing in social enterprises,” “marketing strategy/practice in social enterprises,” “social enterprise marketing” and “business practices in social enterprises.” After screening and checking for eligibility, 47 significant articles published in 21 peer-reviewed journals during 1995–2018 were selected for review. Findings The findings suggest that marketing in SEs has different issues and challenges when compared to marketing practices adopted by conventional business organizations. They are forced to address the varied expectations of the stakeholders in a resource-constrained situation, which creates problems for them. The review also highlights the fact that resource constraints, legacy mindset, and lack of marketing skills limit the impact of marketing practices in SEs. To address these issues, many social entrepreneurs survive through cost-effective marketing techniques. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first effort to identify and analyze extant literature in SEM. The resultant themes and research gaps highlight the current status of SEM literature. The paper can help SEs to understand and plan their marketing activities for better impact and profitability. Future research can draw on the findings of this review.

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

“…Reduced resources and a dependency on donations often enforce restrictions on the daily operations of SEs, obliging them to depend more on selling products and services whilst becoming more financially self-reliant [7]. Hence, SEs need to carry out promotional activities, which entail designing, offering, and convincing customers about products and service propositions [7,27]. Social business entrepreneurs acknowledge the requirement to become more commercially positioned whilst also emphasising their social aims [28].…”

“…Since the 1970s, marketers thought that offerings were constrained to goods or services that involved the provision of concepts to expedite behavioural transformation [36]. However, change arose when vendors acknowledged that commercial marketing could be employed for social causes [7], and this sub-discipline is seen as a clear example of social marketing.…”

“…In contrast, commercial businesses will not. Social entrepreneurs, on the other hand, must synchronously inspect the social impact and economic feasibility of each product and service [7].…”

“…Considering the restrictions of, for example, inadequate capital [4] (p. 1), SEs continuously compete with other social and commercial forms of businesses [5] which have more wide-ranging resources [6]. Scholars, such as [7,8], have called for more comprehensive research to look at how advanced social projects are established in order to comprehend the phenomena more clearly. In addition, since much of the published research has emphasised the charitable nature of SEs, their commercial role has never fully come into focus [7,9].…”

“…Scholars, such as [7,8], have called for more comprehensive research to look at how advanced social projects are established in order to comprehend the phenomena more clearly. In addition, since much of the published research has emphasised the charitable nature of SEs, their commercial role has never fully come into focus [7,9]. Indeed, most academic literature examines commercial enterprises rather than SEs when it comes to the topic of marketing (i.e., [10][11][12]).…”