Bricolage in Social Entrepreneurship

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Bacq ◽  
Laurel F. Ofstein ◽  
Jill R. Kickul ◽  
Lisa K. Gundry

Social entrepreneurs face unique challenges in their dual pursuit of social and financial value creation to address pressing societal problems. While social entrepreneurs' behaviour and actions have been highlighted as an important source of creativity and innovation, this issue has largely been underresearched in the field of entrepreneurship. This paper explores the role of social entrepreneurs' bricolage behaviour in enabling their enterprises to scale their operations. The authors test their hypothesis on a unique database of 123 social enterprises using an online survey. They find a positive relationship between entrepreneurial bricolage and the scaling of social impact. The paper concludes with study implications, post hoc analyses and limitations and directions for future research.

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudheer Gupta ◽  
Stefanie Beninger ◽  
Jai Ganesh

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a detailed analysis of the key capabilities needed for social enterprises to succeed in the context of extreme poverty. Facilitating growth and alleviating poverty in the world’s most impoverished regions requires introducing innovative solutions to achieve social impact while generating financial returns. Design/methodology/approach – This paper studies two social enterprises operating in Africa. Semi-structured interviewers were conducted with co-founders of the organizations. The transcribed interviews were analyzed through an open coding process, iterated to overarching categories, and compared between the organizations using a grounded theory approach. Secondary archival data and respondent validation were used to triangulate these findings. Findings – This paper proposes a model that highlights five key capabilities social enterprises need to tackle complex societal challenges while overcoming resource constraints and institutional voids. The processes followed to develop and deploy these capabilities are delineated, and the necessity of hybrid mechanisms that blend non-profit and private-sector approaches is shown as a key enabler for social enterprises to meet their dual objectives. Research limitations/implications – This research is limited to two cases studies from two different industries in Africa. Future research would refine and extend the proposed model to increase generalizability. Originality/value – This paper addresses a gap in the literature on understanding innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, and it proposes a model for innovation derived from data. This paper also offers insights to the growing community of social entrepreneurs looking to develop sustainable solutions to societal challenges.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1190-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Staicu ◽  
Oana Pop

Abstract The goal of this research is to acknowledge the elements which hinder or facilitate the transition from linear to the circular economy in the textile and apparel sector in Romania by identifying current and desired interactions among the ecosystem’s stakeholders. Two strands of literature, one on circular economy and one on the textile and apparel sector, provide the theoretical background for this research. Currently, the way we design, produce, and use clothing has drawbacks that are becoming increasingly clear. The circular economy principles have the potential to transform the way textiles are produced, consumed and disposed of. More and more social entrepreneurs are pioneering the future of the apparel industry by offering sustainable solutions to tackling systemic problems. However, their efforts have to be elevated and amplified, as such to pave the way for creating business models that allow for both economic performance and social impact. A comprehensive mapping of ongoing activities and stakeholders in the textile and apparel sector in Romania is required to understand the roadblocks to industry transformation in the context of moving toward circular economy and to implement envisioned sustainable solutions. In the paper we used a database of 27 stakeholders, developed by applying the snowball method, to investigate current and future interactions between the main actors who operate in the textile and apparel sector. To meet its research objectives, the paper employed a phenomenological research design and built upon a workshop activity. First, we designed an online survey to understand the profile and knowledge of the circular economy of the stakeholders included in our database. Second, we employed the world café method to understand in depth the level of knowledge of the actors who attended the workshop on the circular economy in the textile and apparel sector. Third, we used the structural systemic constellations method in assessing the stakeholders’ current and future desired interactions. Last, we formulated conclusions and recommendations about future research needed to deepen the understanding of the circular economy in the textile and apparel sector. Findings showed that there is a vicious circle of different actions feeding isolation and preventing collaboration among stakeholders. Also, we found that there is a lack of collaborative spaces where stakeholders can meet, connect and explore the various opportunities to collaborate, and a lack of general awareness on “circular economy and textile and apparel” and its mechanisms. The intended audiences of the research are decision-makers and practitioners in the textile and apparel sector, as well as researchers focused on the circular economy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mary Heyworth-Thomas ◽  
Rosalind Jones

This article contributes to research of vulnerable communities and investigates the role of social enterprise created or saved from closure by social entrepreneurs affected personally by a life-changing event, in the context of stroke survival. Qualitative research is deployed to investigate the ways in which social enterprise supports survivors of stroke and their caregivers. Research analysis identifies start-up motives and challenges faced by social entrepreneurs and highlights how social enterprise can bridge the gap in support provision provided by the statutory and third sectors. Involvement in stroke clubs was found to be a key positive contributor to participants’ life after stroke. This study has found that those who become social entrepreneurs after a life-changing event exhibit altruistic behaviours, while engagement between these social enterprises and this vulnerable group created specific benefits for vulnerable individuals and their caregivers, highlighting the potential for social enterprise to bridge the gap between statutory and third sectors which is currently overlooked in existing policy provision. The article concludes by making detailed recommendations for future research in this context and for governments and policymakers.


Author(s):  
Işıl Sevilay Yılmaz ◽  
Burze Yaşar

Nevertheless, scholarly knowledge on crowdfunding has been accumulating, and the number of studies on the role of crowdfunding in financing social entrepreneurs is limited and results are mixed. This calls for a need to uncover the underlying dynamics of funding success for socially and environmentally oriented projects. To analyze these dynamics, the authors analyze the funding performance of campaigns tagged by the Kickstarter platform as ‘public benefit', ‘environmental', or ‘LGBTQIA'. Results show that projects with these tags are more likely to be successful compared to projects without tags after controlling for other factors that are shown to affect project success in the literature. These findings provide guidelines to social entrepreneurs looking to fund their projects on crowdfunding platforms and open up the path for future research on the relationship between framing for social and environmental orientation and funding success.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
MISBAH NOOR ◽  
FAYAZ ALI SHAH ◽  
SHAHID JAN KAKAKHEL

Social entrepreneurship has been recently becoming center of attention for academicians and practitioners. It is mainly because of its critical role in addressing unmet needs and social problems of underprivileged communities around the globe. Social entrepreneurs are often confronted with the scarcity of resources as they are inherently located in resource constrained settings. Given the scarcity of resources and the crucial role of social entrepreneurship, bricolage is emerging as a promising strategy to address resource scarcity in impoverished settings. In this vein, this paper provides a comprehensive review of literature on bricolage and how it unfolds in social entrepreneurship. The review also sheds light on the conceptual evolution of bricolage and how it invades the entrepreneurship literature. A systematic approach was adopted for conducting the literature search in order to capture all the recent work on bricolage in context of social entrepreneurship. The review shows that most of the studies on bricolage in context of social entrepreneurship are concentrated in developed countries and more stable environments with only few exceptions. Also social bricolage theory which is an extension of entrepreneurial bricolage is still understudied and needs further investigation and documentation. The paper holds particular relevance for academicians and researchers as it provides useful insights into concepts of bricolage and its relevance to social entrepreneurship. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Bricolage, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Bricolage.


Author(s):  
Andres Felipe Camargo Benavides ◽  
Michel Ehrenhard

AbstractFor decades, the cooperative enterprise (CE) produces market goods and/or provides services in the interest to its members, such as communities, customers, and suppliers. The upsurge of interest in social enterprises, and their balancing of social and economic interests, has also led to a renewed interest in CEs, often seen as a specific type of social enterprise. However, from an organizational perspective, this renewed interest has been both limited and scattered over a variety of fields. In this paper, we systematically review papers on CE in the mainstream organizational literature, defined as literature in the fields of economics, business, management and sociology. Our review integrates and synthesizes the current topics in the mainstream organizational literature and provides a number of avenues for future research. In addition, we compare our findings in the organizational literature to the social issues literature as these appeared to be quite complimentary. We found multilevel studies, determination of social impact—in particular measurable impact, managerial practices for sustainable (organisational) development, and the entrepreneurial opportunity generation process as the four key avenues for future research.


Author(s):  
Hale Cide Demir

The intense competition and change by globalization and digitalization in the 21st century have made organizations and people face opportunities, threats, and uncertainty. Digitalization allows new and original business models and thus, presenting changes as a service or benefit to the consumer has become more important. A network is the most powerful instrument of social entrepreneurs or other employees to adapt to the new order. A very important tool of the new order is the blockchain technology which allows more secure, efficient, and trustworthy social enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is the process of establishing social enterprises to create social benefits and the relevant social value is general non-financial effects of programs, organizations, and interferences that include the wellbeing of people and communities, social capital, and the environment. This study tries to define and theorize that the results of digitalization can be managed by increasing social entrepreneurship and the resulting social impact and networking have an easing effect on this method.


Author(s):  
Gaye Karacay

Being at a development stage, the social innovation literature needs further contributions that would help to comprehensively find out the enablers of social innovation especially within macro level. Since the nature of social innovation is cumulative as well as interactive, the micro level practices of individual social innovation initiatives add up to the general patterns at the macro-level. On account of the fact that shared values among members of a society bring about similar expectations, perceptions, and behavioral patterns, it is essential to explore how various societal cultural attributes contribute to social innovation capacities of countries. This study aims to explore an evidence of the influence of societal culture on social innovation, specifically by shaping the perceptions of social entrepreneurs for social value creation. By discussing the relationship between societal culture and social innovation in a conceptual manner along with developing research propositions, this study offers a new direction for future research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 371-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradeep Kumar Hota ◽  
Sumit Mitra ◽  
Israr Qureshi

ABSTRACTSocial enterprises (SEs) primarily aim to create social value, that is, to generate benefits or reduce costs for society, while maintaining financial sustainability. Owing to their unique operating conditions and organizational characteristics, SEs face more severe resource challenges than their commercial counterparts. These challenges are exacerbated for SEs operating in emerging economies with complex social contexts. Overcoming these resource constraints and social challenges is vital for SEs to achieve their mission. Using an inductive multiple case-study approach, we identify a unique bricolage solution for achieving the dual objectives of SEs. Our findings suggest that identifying locally embedded village level entrepreneurs is a bricolage activity that social entrepreneurs leverage in the resource constrained environment of emerging economies, especially for the social enterprises that are active in the villages but were founded by social entrepreneurs who are not from these villages. This article therefore contributes to both social entrepreneurship literature as well as entrepreneurial bricolage literature and has important implications for future research and practice.


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