How Partnerships Affect the Social Performance of Korean Social Enterprises

Abstract

Social enterprises receive a lot of attention, because of their ability to balance social service-enhancing and profit-making activities. They can survive and have financial sustainability in markets and provide social services that would otherwise not be provided due to the failure of private or government provision. In the Korean context, social enterprises have another function – to provide jobs and increase employment rates in times of low economic growth and growing inequality. Given this situation, it is useful for researchers to investigate what types of partners provide particular sorts of resources to social enterprises and what types of resources from such partners may have mediating effects on the relationship between partnerships and the social performance of social enterprises. First, this research shows that all partners of social enterprises provide financial support and public and social partners provide marketing support, while private partners do not provide marketing support. However, no partners provide any managerial support. Second, public and social partners are helpful for the social performance of social enterprises but their financial support influences the social performance of social enterprises negatively. Private partners and their financial support also influence the social performance of social enterprises negatively.