From “virtuous” to “pragmatic” pursuit of social mission

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 970-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. McDonald ◽  
Jay Weerawardena ◽  
Sreedhar Madhavaram ◽  
Gillian Sullivan Mort
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Work ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Fiscal Sustainability ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Non Profit Organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a sustainability-based typology for non-profit organizations and corresponding strategies to sustain the mission and/or financial objectives of non-profit organizations. The balance of mission and money, known in the non-profit literature as the double bottom line, is a challenge for professional managers who run non-profits and scholars who study them. Design/methodology/approach – Typologies are often used to classify phenomena to improve understanding and bring about clarity. In this paper, non-profit organizations are viewed from a social and fiscal viability perspective, developed from the long standing challenge of balancing mission and money. Findings – The typology developed in this paper identifies several normative strategies that correspond to the social and fiscal viability of non-profit organizations. In fact, the strategies offered in this paper can help non-profit managers achieve organizational sustainability, thus enabling them to continue what they are meant to do – to provide greater social value to their constituents. Research limitations/implications – The typology presented is a classification system rather than a theoretical typology. Its purpose is to help managers of non-profits to recognize threats to their organizations’ long-term survival and offer strategies that if adopted can move the organizations to less vulnerable positions. However, the recommended strategies are by no means exhaustive. Furthermore, the focus of the paper is on non-profit organizations, not profit-driven or hybrid entities. The sustainability-based typology of non-profit organizations and the corresponding strategies have implications for practitioners and academics. The typology and its contents can help managers assess their non-profits, competitive environment and their current strategies, plan their double bottom line strategies and last but not the least, develop and implement strategies for social and fiscal sustainability. In addition, our paper provides great opportunities for future research to subject our typology and its contents to conceptual and empirical scrutiny. Practical implications – The strategies described here are developed based on scholarly research and examples from successful non-profits. The typology and the related list of strategies provide a manager with the tools to accurately diagnose organizational challenges and adopt plans to improve the organization’s viability. Social implications – Non-profit organizations are an integral part of society that bolsters economic prosperity, environmental integrity and social justice. This paper may provide guidance for a number of non-profit managers to keep their organizations operating and serving important social missions. Originality/value – In the context of organizations for social mission, several typologies exist that looked at firms from the perspectives of ownership versus profit objectives, entrepreneurship conceptualizations of economists and origins and development paths of social enterprises. While these typologies provided foundations for theoretical and empirical work into social enterprises, our typology offers strategies for the sustainability of mission and/or money objectives of non-profits. The value of this research lies in integrating virtuous and pragmatic objectives of non-profit sustainability that, in turn, can ensure the social mission of non-profits.

Essay Gifts: gifting for greater good

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Sarah Babb ◽  
Tina Retief ◽  
Geoff Bick
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social

Subject area The subject areas are marketing, entrepreneurship, strategy or organisational design, operating in emerging markets and social entrepreneurship. Study level/applicability The study is applicable to MBA students, masters-level students and students of executive education. Case overview The case outlines the context and current decisions and dilemma facing Essay Gifts, which is a successful enterprise based in Cape Town, South Africa, supplying a local market in corporate gifting since 2006. The emerging market is facing economic decline and rising unemployment sitting at 25 per cent and up to 48 per cent in the youth market. After seven years of operating from a home-based office, Beatrice has moved into an office block in an upcoming area in Cape Town as they anticipate bullish targets for the upcoming year. The decision facing her now is whether to also sign a lease for a vacant retail shop downstairs from her office to sell ready-made gifting solutions. To meet the social mission, Essay Gifts is using township-based suppliers to develop the products, and this is proving an often unreliable and inconsistent source of supply and the current orders may not even be met at this particularly busy end-of-year period. How does Beatrice scale the business and what business is she in after all? Is she an entrepreneur, striving to increase the size of her business and her revenue, or is she a social entrepreneur creating employment opportunities for others? Expected learning outcomes The paper enables to identify the determining features of a social enterprise and the dynamics involved in balancing the social and commercial missions; understand the complexities of entrepreneurial operations in emerging markets; identify scaling up and strategic growth strategy options for social enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises; and distinguish entrepreneurial marketing strategies in contrast with traditional marketing strategies. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Accounting for social return on investment (SROI)

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bellucci ◽  
Carmela Nitti ◽  
Serena Franchi ◽  
Enrico Testi ◽  
Luca Bagnoli
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Return On Investment ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Social Return On Investment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of

PurposeThis study aims to assess the effectiveness of social return on investment (SROI) as a measure of the social impact produced by non-profit organisations and social enterprises that support family-centred care, an approach that focuses on the pivotal role of families in paediatric health care.Design/methodology/approachThe study offers an analytical evaluation of the SROI created by the Italian branch of the Ronald McDonald House Charities and highlights (a) the participatory analysis of stakeholders and outcomes; (b) the measurement of inputs; (c) the definition of outputs and proxies for the measurement of outcomes; (d) the calculation of the SROI ratio; and (e) the results of a sensitivity analysis.FindingsThis study discusses the advantages and shortcomings of SROI analyses, the practical implications of this research on governance and management and the role of engagement in managing the expectations of stakeholders. The value of SROI measurements in shaping strategic and management decisions – with special emphasis on stakeholder relations – is also discussed.Originality/valueNon-profit organisations and social enterprises often require tools that assess the outcomes of their activities. The present research can provide new guidance to SROI analysts, while drawing attention to the most suitable proxies and indicators for evaluating the SROI of organisations operating in the health care sector.

scholarly journals Corporate governance practices and outcomes in social enterprises in the UK

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Mswaka ◽  
Olu Aluko
Keyword(s):  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Governance Models ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Enterprise Governance ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the growth of social enterprise in the UK in the context of the renewed interest in the creative use of organisations with a social mission to complement public service delivery. Given the impact of globalisation and increased demands for effective social welfare interventions, this paper specifically focuses on the nature and type of social enterprise governance models and how they influence their outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilises a mixed method approach involving the complementary use of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. Findings – The paper finds that the way in which the social enterprise governance structure is designed ultimately influences its outcomes. In particular, those with stewardship governance models tend to perform better than those with democratic models of governance. This leads to a conclusion that in the social context of the UK, social enterprise should aim for a paradigm shift in the design and selection of governance models. Research limitations/implications – Comparative regional experiences in other regions or social contexts could enrich our understanding of whether these results are applicable across the board. Practical implications – This paper is of potential benefit to researchers and particularly those designing policies for the governance of social enterprise. Originality/value – The study employs innovative analytical theoretical lenses not normally associated with the social economy, namely agency, stewardship and resource dependency theories to provide a more in-depth analysis of the governance of contemporary social enterprise.

scholarly journals Collectivist Practices in Social Innovation: Functions of Cooperation

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Svetlana G. Klimova ◽  
Ivan A. Klimov
Keyword(s):  
Business Strategy ◽  
Professional Ethics ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
The Social ◽  
Non Profit Organizations ◽  
Production Problems

This articles analyzes the business strategy of social innovators. We call the heads and employees of non-profit organizations, social enterprises, and the initiators of volunteer projects “social innovators”, as they not only use organizational novelties in their activities, but also change routine rules and practices, which alters the life of a society connected in any way with the activities of those organizations. It is demonstrated that the standard expectations of ideologues and officials, in respect to the activity of social innovators, contradict their values and visions of proper behavior. They consistently show orientation towards cooperation with each other and the social environment. Solidarity, the development of communities around non-profit organizations or social enterprises, is not only a resource, but also an independent effect of their activity. The functions of cooperation in the activity of social innovators are described. Cooperation is required not only to implement the mission accepted by innovators, but also to solve practical production problems. These are: the increase of knowledge and exchange of experience; cooperation for solving difficult problems; the joint elaboration of standards of professional ethics and business ethics; a way to gain reputation among colleagues and service consumers; the promotion of new values; and the preservation, re-creation, or restoration of the local community. It is concluded that the competition ideologeme promoted in the community of social innovators should be replaced with the cooperation ideologeme and relevant training programs.

Competencies, Skills, and Goals Needed for Social Enterprises

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Zuzana Palová ◽  
Jarmila Šebestová
Keyword(s):  
Research Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
The Other ◽  
Societal Impact ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Innovations

Competencies, skills, and goals are a significant part of social enterprises. They carry out the social mission, but the founders and providers need a set of skills which could help them to be successful in those beneficial projects. The aim of this chapter is to define the rightest competence of the founders of social enterprises in the case of the Czech Republic. These competencies will be a combination of competencies suitable for the profit and non-profit sectors. Finally, the evaluation model of triple benefits is suggested and evaluated. This model is based on the primary research evaluation, and on the social return of investment ratio (SROI). There is a place to improve this situation and evaluate the efficiency of triple benefit by the real societal impact in the region as was proposed in this chapter; on the other hand, effectiveness is built on significant factors based on field study, which support networking, willingness to make social innovations and other activities.

Smokey Tours: the other side of Manila

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Fernando Martin Roxas ◽  
Andrea Santiago
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Multiple Stakeholders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Slum Tourism ◽  
Marketing Operations ◽  
Non Profit Organizations ◽  
Main Activity

Subject area Managing non-profit organizations, social enterprises, strategic management for small entities and tourism. Study level/applicability Useful for graduate students enrolled in courses with development aspects. Undergraduate students learning about non-profit organizations can also benefit. Case overview This is a case of a small non-profit organization that is struggling to formalize its operating systems to generate sufficient surplus to plough funds back to the community that it envisioned to serve. The protagonist has to make a decision of whether to invest large sums in a health center for permanent visibility or to implement health services on a smaller scale given its current level of operations. Whether the protagonists’ operations are scaleable or not is also in question, as its main activity – slum tours – is not a widely accepted concept. Expected learning outcomes 1. Students will understand the challenges of starting and growing non-profit organizations. 2. Students will recognize the need to make operations efficient and to establish control systems to manage enterprise resources. 3. Students will realize that decision-making requires the balancing of interests of multiple stakeholders. 4. Students will learn to analyze the options of financing social projects considering marketing, operations and financial data. 5. Students will gain better appreciation of the merits and demerits of slum tourism. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

Brownies & Downies: coffee, culture and community: a social innovation that supports the intellectually disabled

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jonathan Marks ◽  
Karen Hidden
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Intellectually Disabled ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social

Subject area Entrepreneurship; Social entrepreneurship. Study level/applicability Graduate level. Case overview This paper, The Brownies & Downies case study, aims to examine a social enterprise that provides employment, training and job placements for people with intellectual disability within a trendy artisanal coffee shop in Cape Town, South Africa. The business is based on a similar establishment (same name) in The Netherlands and was brought to Cape Town by Wendy Vermeulen, a Dutch national who completed a social development internship in Cape Town. The case is located within the field of social enterprise with a particular focus on the tension between purpose and profit and the pressure and challenges of replication, growth and scale/expansion. The protagonist in the case is Wade Schultz, Wendy’s business partner, who is grappling with how to not only remain true to the social purpose of the business but also turn a profit in the pressured and competitive coffee industry. He is further challenged by deciding whether to expand the existing training business into other sectors or seek a replication model in other South African cities as a means of growing revenue and increasing the social impact. Expected learning outcomes The key learning from this case study are as follows: First, intellectual disability is a hidden form of disability, often misunderstood and subject to prejudice and discriminatory hiring practices. Intellectual disability exists on a scale – some individuals are able to work outside of pretexted or sheltered workspaces. Greater effort is required within open workplaces to sensitive staff to working with/alongside intellectually disabled people. This case illustrates a social enterprise model that seeks to bridge the gap between sheltered workspaces and open workspaces. Second, most social enterprises grapple with the tension between profit and purpose; this case presents a company that is living this dilemma. The importance of remaining true to purpose needs to be balanced carefully against becoming economically self-sufficient; however, the pursuit of profits should not happen at the cost of social mission. Alternate business models are a mechanism to building revenue to support the social objective. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS: 3: Entrepreneurship.

scholarly journals Representation of intellectual capital’s components amongst Italian social enterprises

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 564-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Benevene ◽  
Eric Kong ◽  
Barbara Barbieri ◽  
Massimiliano Lucchesi ◽  
Michela Cortini
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Software Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Survival And Growth ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the representation that senior managers of Italian social enterprises have about their organization’s intellectual capital (IC), precisely about the human capital, relational capital and organizational capital. Design/methodology/approach This paper used a qualitative approach. A total of 81 senior managers were interviewed individually. Interview data were analyzed using different techniques of content analysis, particularly by using the T-Lab software (analysis of word occurrence and co-word mapping, analysis of Markovian sequences). Findings Findings confirm the divide between theory and practice of IC. The representation of the IC dimensions is rather different from the definition that is found in the academic literature. Limited awareness about IC components and their generative power of knowledge determines a limited exploitation of the social enterprises’ organizational knowledge. Research limitations/implications The group reached is limited to Italy and is not statistically representative of all Italian social enterprises. Practical implications Social enterprises are crucial in the development and well-being of societies. However, the findings suggest that many social enterprises managers are not fully aware of the importance of IC and how it may create value for their organizations. This paper stresses that senior managers of social enterprises need to, through various methods, have a better understanding of IC management and knowledge creation if they are to fully utilise the potential of IC in their organizations for survival and growth. Originality/value This is the first attempt to explore the perception of IC’s components among social enterprises, which represent an important development of non-profit organizations.

Understanding the social entrepreneur: a new intentions model for advancing equity, social justice and sustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Miyuri Duncan-Horner ◽  
Megan Anne Farrelly ◽  
Briony C. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Growth Mindset ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
The Social

Purpose Social entrepreneurship (SE) is an emerging social phenomenon gaining tangible traction for its ability to tackle complex social and environmental problems against a backdrop of global sustainability challenges. This paper aims to unpack SE intentions, mindset and motivations to elucidate “why” and “how” social entrepreneurs (SE) initiate, perpetuate and sustain pro-social entrepreneurship activity. It specifically asks why SE do what they do, how they develop and sustain pro-social entrepreneurship action and how these normative drivers affect the social change process. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research adopts an exploratory multiple case design approach in examining the tacit experience of eight SE tackling complex water, sanitation and environmental challenges in Indonesia, and combines this with scholarly insights from multiple bodies of knowledge. Case studies include six SE recognised by the Ashoka Foundation and two lesser-known “social enterprises” to enable finding patterns across the cases and compare key differences between pro-social and conventional entrepreneurship. Triangulating semi-structured interviews with secondary data analysis and semi-ethnographic fieldwork observations, this paper provides a rich theoretical and empirical basis to understand the emerging transformative potential of SE in tackling a range of sustainability issues. Findings Interviews with eight SE highlighted their intentions to advance inter and intra-generational equity, social justice and sustainability, bringing socially embedded empathetic values and a growth mindset to overcome challenges associated with disrupting existing social order. Direct engagement with the SE revealed 10 critical enabling factors to foster future SE potential, namely, individual background and experience, unmet social needs, empathy, sense of belonging, willingness/passion to alleviate other’s suffering, growth mindset, internal/external catalysts, intrinsic and extrinsic needs, beliefs and goals and declaration of a social mission to ensure consistency in behaviour and action. This demonstrates that while SE are motivated by a variety of self and other-oriented mechanisms, it is ultimately the process of developing empathy, a growth mindset and declaring a social mission that drives and sustains pro-social entrepreneurship action. Practical implications The output of this research is a new intentions model, which outlines the 5 phases of enterprise development and 10 critical enabling factors to foster future SE potential. These insights are critical to leveraging the emerging transformative potential of SE in tackling the world’s most urgent sustainability issues. Social implications The paper presents a deep analysis of data on individual background, experience and characteristics in developing a new SE intentions model. Originality/value The distinct focus on inputs over processes and outcomes answers to a highly elusive topic while offering an alternative approach to understand how SE create remarkably different strategies, processes and outcomes to conventional developmental approaches.

The Social Media Presence of Non-profit Organizations

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Lucky ◽  
Dinesh Rathi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Médias Sociaux ◽  
The Social ◽  
Powerful Knowledge ◽  
Social Media Presence ◽  
Non Profit Organizations ◽  
Medias Sociaux

Social media technologies have the potential to be powerful knowledge sharing and community building tools for both corporate and non-profit interests. This pilot study explores the social media presence of a group of forty-six Alberta-based non-profit organizations (NPOs) in this information rich space. In this paper we look at the pattern of presence of NPOs using social media and relationships with staffing structures.Les médias sociaux ont la capacité d’être de puissants outils de partage de la connaissance et de rassemblement communautaire pour les organisations à but lucratif et sans but lucratif. Cette étude pilote explore la présence dans les médias sociaux d’un groupe de quarante-six organisations sans but lucratif (OSBL) albertaines dans cet environnement riche en information. La communication portera sur les modèles de présence des OSBL dans les médias sociaux et les liens avec les structures organisationnelles.

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