The Determinants of Outreach Performance of Social Business: An Inquiry on Italian Social Cooperatives

Abstract

We analyze factors affecting outreach performance of a large sample of (type A) social cooperatives in Italy taking into account their heterogeneity with a multi‐output stochastic distance function frontier. We find that cooperative age, innovation leading to new products/customer segments, managerial turnover, target programming and shareholder variety are positively and significantly (while shareholder meetings, the number of volunteers and of contracts negatively and significantly) correlated with outreach performance, measured as the capacity of serving more beneficiaries given labour and capital inputs. Outreach is also significantly and positively affected by local GDP and human capital.

Tangible and intangible resources and the financial performance of Polish social cooperatives

“…Measuring the determinants of social cooperatives' performance is problematic (Becchetti, and Pisani, 2015). The assessment of the economic-financial performance of social cooperatives also brings difficulties, however it is important and necessary as it helps to ensure if social cooperatives are able to satisfy in a continuous, durable and autonomous way the social purpose they have been created for (Magnanelli, Radi, and Sacchi, 2016;Bontis et al, 2018).…”

“…The recent development and growth of social business is an seemingly surprising phenomenon for standard economic theory. Research on social cooperatives is scarce (Becchetti, and Pisani, 2015). The vast majority of them are reports, additionally based on subjective data and the feelings of respondents.…”

The sustainability and political agency of social cooperatives in Italy during the great recession

“…With specific regard to social cooperatives, the literature highlights a number of factors that may affect their performance and survival prospects. These include, for instance, regulatory framework and government support, multistakeholder ownership and governance, a propensity to greater efficiency and autonomy in decision making and the innovative nature of the goods and services they produce and deliver (Becchetti and Pisani, 2015;Borzaga and Defourny, 2001;Borzaga and Spear, 2004;Borzaga and Tortia, 2006;Depedri, 2010). Human capital has also proved to be a key determinant of success.…”

“…Much research has also investigated the ability of social cooperatives to conduct their business efficiently and provide high quality and innovative welfare and workintegration services, which proved to be better able to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged (Borzaga and Depedri, 2013;Pezzini, 1997). Finally, overall economic and employment performance, organizational effectiveness and social cooperatives' capacity to operate in increasingly competitive markets have also been examined (Becchetti and Pisani, 2015;Borzaga and Fazzi, 2014).…”

Social Capital and Mutual Versus Public Benefit: The Case of Renewable Energy Cooperatives

“…One example of this renewal is provided by Italian social cooperatives, which started emerging in the late 1980s and combine characteristics of non‐profit voluntary organizations with the cooperative form (Borzaga and Santuari ; Mancino and Thomas ; Picciotti et al. ; Becchetti and Pisani )…”