Intermediary Support for Social Entrepreneurs: The Influence of Institutional Logics

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the selection decisions support intermediaries apply towards social enterprises, according to their institutional logic. We hypothesize that intermediaries engage in a process of reflexive isomorphism and select social entrepreneurs according to the inherent prescription of their respective institutional logic. Hence, we ask whether support intermediaries – embedded in a developmental as opposed to a financial institutional logic – select social enterprises with differences in their earned income ratio and mission orientation. Hypotheses are tested with survey-data of 470 members of a global network of social entrepreneurs, using multilevel modelling. Preliminary results confirm our assumptions and show: actors adhering to a developmental logic tend to support social entrepreneurs with high mission orientation and low earned income, whereas supporters following a financial logic rather select ventures with a lower mission orientation but a higher earned income share. Our results aim to contribute both to the growing literature in the intersection of social entrepreneurship and institutional logics – by providing empirical evidence for the practice of reflexive isomorphism of intermediaries through selection – and to the definitional debate around social entrepreneurship as a whole: by supporting some organizations and not others, intermediaries might advance the manifestation of their “version” of social entrepreneurship in the field.