Abstract
Social enterprises pursue a dual mission: on the one hand, they strive for social purpose, while on the other, they try to achieve economic stability despite scarce resources. To achieve the dual mission, social enterprises avail themselves of both for-profit and non-profit institutional logics. Due to this combination of multiple institutional logics, such enterprises can be classified as hybrid organizations. This study focuses on these organizations and investigates tensions between social enterprises and various stakeholder groups caused by the use of commercial logics within the social sector. In particular, we examine the perception of commercial versus social welfare logics by various stakeholder groups, and investigate the effects on organizational communication. Our study is centered on social franchise enterprises. We use an exploratory qualitative research approach based on semi-structured interviews with 21 social franchisors and social franchisees of seven social franchise enterprises. Our main results suggest that the use of commercial logics in the social sector tends to decrease the legitimacy of social franchise enterprises in the eyes of internal stakeholders, the general public, and various (but not all) external stakeholder groups. Many stakeholders of social franchise enterprises show a strong aversion to commercial logics, and particularly to commercial terminology. Overall, we conclude that social franchise enterprises very consciously apply commercial and social welfare logics and use alternative terminology where necessary to retain legitimacy and prevent tensions.
Highlights
Social enterprises are characterized by ‘‘[...] the explicit aim to benefit the community or the creation of ‘‘social value,’’ rather than the distribution of profit, [...]’’ (Defourny and Nyssens 2010a, b, p. 16)
This study focuses on these organizations and investigates tensions between social enterprises and various stakeholder groups caused by the use of commercial logics within the social sector
Our main results suggest that the use of commercial logics in the social sector tends to decrease the legitimacy of social franchise enterprises in the eyes of internal stakeholders, the general public, and various external stakeholder groups
Summary
Social enterprises are characterized by ‘‘[...] the explicit aim to benefit the community or the creation of ‘‘social value,’’ rather than the distribution of profit, [...]’’ (Defourny and Nyssens 2010a, b, p. 16). Just like their commercial counterparts, social enterprises need to generate resources to be reinvested in order to achieve economic stability, retain operations, and serve their chosen purpose (Carroll and Stater 2009; Defourny and Nyssens 2010a, 2017) Due to their social mission and resulting strategic inflexibility, social enterprises need to tap a different, wider set of financial instruments, and have fewer options of unrestricted capital. Oftentimes, they access a unique mix of resources from government-linked institutions as well as private parties (Austin et al 2006; Defourny and Nyssens 2010b; Teasdale 2012). Due to their combination of multiple institutional logics of both business and charity, social
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
