Community forest enterprises (CFEs) as Social Enterprises: Empirical evidence from Cameroon

Purpose Community forest enterprises (CFEs) represent a unique business model in the forest sector which has significant potential to foster community development through sustainable utilization of forest resources. However, CFEs are mired in numerous management challenges which restrict their ability to harness this potential. This paper identifies those challenges and, by drawing on the field of social enterprises, offers specific solutions to address them. The paper also enriches the social enterprise literature by highlighting the role of decentralized decision-making and community empowerment in achieving sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach Using qualitative meta-synthesis, the paper first identifies key challenges from the CFE literature. It then draws on the social enterprise literature to distill actionable insights for overcoming those challenges. Findings The study reveals how the social enterprise literature can guide CFEs managers in making decisions related to human resource management, marketing, fundraising, developing conducive organizational cultures and deploying performance measures. Originality/value The paper provides novel and actionable insights into managing and scaling CFEs. It also identifies opportunities for future inter-disciplinary research at the intersection of decentralized management of natural resources and social enterprises that could facilitate progress toward achieving sustainable development.

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Marginalized Communities and Social Enterprises

Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society ◽

10.5840/iabsproc2019308 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 59-65

Author(s):

Meike Siegner ◽

Rajat Panwar ◽

Robert Kozak ◽

Keyword(s):

Community Engagement ◽

Local Communities ◽

Social Enterprises ◽

Hybrid Organizations ◽

Community Forest ◽

Marginalized Communities ◽

Social Mission ◽

Multiple Case ◽

Forest Enterprises

Thus far, the academic focus has been limited to understand how hybrid organizations balance goal plurality. However, the question how hybrids engage (or fail to engage) local communities in this process and the potential challenges involved has remained unaddressed. Relying on an inductive multiple case study of six Canadian community forest enterprises (CFEs), we describe dilemmas that arise between community engagement and CFEs’ other goals that form their social mission, as well as a distinct set of compromise tactics to address them. We further identify a tension that arises from two distinct dimensions inherent to community engagement that are inherently interwoven yet contradicting. We add to research on paradox by showing that tensions not merely arise between outcome-focused goals that stem from organizational hybridity, but demonstrate that individual goal prescriptions in itself entail elements that cause tension, and warrant paradoxical management to ensure hybrids’ success in fulfilling their overall mission.

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Chapter 1: Community Managed in the Strong Sense of the Phrase: The Community Forest Enterprises of Mexico

10.7560/706378-003 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 1-26

Author(s):

David Barton Bray ◽

Leticia Merino-Pérez ◽

Deborah Barry

Keyword(s):

Strong Sense ◽

Community Forest ◽

Forest Enterprises

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Financial sources, capital structure and performance of social enterprises: empirical evidence from India

Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment ◽

10.1080/20430795.2019.1619337 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 27-46

Author(s):

Revendranath Tirumalsety ◽

Anjula Gurtoo

Keyword(s):

Capital Structure ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Enterprises ◽

And Performance

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Financing social entrepreneurship

Social Enterprise Journal ◽

10.1108/sej-02-2017-0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 130-155 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Erin I-Ping Castellas ◽

Jarrod Ormiston ◽

Suzanne Findlay

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Performance Measurement ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Social Enterprise ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Social Enterprises ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Content Type ◽

Impact Performance ◽

The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to explore the emergence and nature of impact investment in Australia and how it is shaping the development of the social enterprise sector. Design/methodology/approach Impact investment is an emerging approach to financing social enterprises that aims to achieve blended value by delivering both impact and financial returns. In seeking to deliver blended value, impact investment combines potentially conflicted logics from investment, philanthropy and government spending. This paper utilizes institutional theory as a lens to understand the nature of these competing logics in impact investment. The paper adopts a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach to study the emergence of impact investment in Australia. The mixed methods include 18 qualitative interviews with impact investors in the Australian market and a subsequent online questionnaire on characteristics of impact investment products, activity and performance. Findings The findings provide empirical evidence of the rapid growth in impact investment in Australia. The analysis reveals the nature of institutional complexity in impact investment and highlights the risk that the impact logic may become overshadowed by the investment logic if the difference in rigor around financial performance measurement and impact performance measurement is maintained. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for the development of the Australian social enterprise sector. Originality/value This paper provides empirical evidence on the emergence of impact investment in Australia and contributes to a growing global body of evidence about the nature, size and characteristics of impact investment.

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How Does Strategic Choice affect the Performance of Community Forest Enterprises? A Study in the Cascadia Region

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/cjfr-2021-0063 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Meike Siegner ◽

Robert Kozak ◽

Rajat Panwar ◽

Harry W Nelson

Keyword(s):

Financial Performance ◽

The United States ◽

Community Forest ◽

Hybrid Strategy ◽

Differentiation Strategy ◽

Leadership Strategy ◽

Forest Enterprises ◽

Using Data ◽

Social Environmental ◽

Equitable Utilization

Proponents of decentralized forest governance make a compelling case that community forest enterprises (CFEs) can aid in sustainable and equitable utilization of forest resources. The effectiveness of CFEs is thus dependent on their ability to balance social, environmental, and financial performance. In this paper, we examine the relationship between a commonly recommended differentiation strategy and CFE effectiveness. Using data obtained through a survey administered on 51 CFEs located in the Cascadia region (British Columbia province of Canada; and Oregon and Washington states of the United States), we find that CFEs pursuing a differentiation strategy are able to balance social, environmental, and financial objectives. Further, recognizing that all CFEs cannot pursue a differentiation strategy, and some may not even have a defined strategic orientation, the paper compares social, environmental, and financial performance of CFEs pursuing a differentiation strategy, a hybrid strategy (a combination of differentiation and cost leadership strategy), and no defined strategy. This analysis reveals that CFEs pursuing a hybrid strategy deliver better financial performance than those with no defined strategy, but are similar to those pursuing a differentiation strategy.

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