Social enterprises in the Indian context: conceptualizing through qualitative lens

Abstract

Adopting an inductive theory building approach through qualitative research methodology of data collection and analysis spread across six months, followed by inter-rater reliability testing using quantitative technique, this empirical study researches the meaning of the 'social enterprise' construct in the Indian context, and develops a conceptual framework that represents the construct. This sets an orientation needed for aspiring social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship researchers to ease out their understanding of the 'social entrepreneurship' phenomenon within the boundaries of an Indian context. The contested nature of the phenomenon in discourses across the globe is largely due to local/regional/ national variations in practice. 'Market Orientation', 'Social Value Creation', 'Social Entrepreneur', and 'Balanced Impact' emerged as key constructs comprising Indian social enterprises. The principle philosophical paradigms for this theory construction are Social Constructionism and Interpretivism, which give impetus to reflective and analytical thought trials for extracting the conceptual framework interwoven in textual data. The study sets course for further research to refine the vocabulary list, identify conceptual densities, create scales for statistical inquiries, and enable further inclusiveness of the conceptual framework.

New and renewable energy social enterprises accessing government support: Findings from India

“…It should also be noted that unlike registered societies, cooperatives, or companies, 'social enterprise' does not exist in the Indian legal framework as a company format for incorporation (registration). Therefore, different actors in the social entrepreneurship ecosystem of the country, tend to consider those enterprises as social enterprise which combine the logic of market orientation and social value creation for achieving a social mission, irrespective of the legal identity of the enterprise; be it a cooperative, a trust, a society, a section 8 company, or a private limited company (Sengupta and Sahay, 2018).…”

Impact Tech Startups: A Conceptual Framework, Machine-Learning-Based Methodology and Future Research Directions

“…It is less applicable in emerging economies, where the needs are very elementary and the distinction between "social" and "commercial" is less relevant. Sengupta and Sahay [40] suggested that in those countries "the critical issues are triggered by shared necessity such as livelihood generation, poverty eradication, rural entrepreneurship, improved education, to name a few. These are addressed through group collectivism, and implemented by connecting beneficiary indigenous communities within the format of micro-institutional structures such as self-help groups."…”

The Effects of Socio-Cultural Context on Breach of Accounting ethics: A Grounded Theory Study

“…Audio recording of pre-organized respondents' interviews and proper note-taking raise credibility of data (Hoque et al, 2017). Researcher applied note taking for interviews where either voice recording was not possible or allowed (Hoque et al, 2017;Sengupta & Sahay, 2018). To ensure rigorous research, verbatim transcription of interviews was applied (Cowton & Downs, 2015).…”