Local geographies of developing country social enterprises

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the geographic distribution of social enterprises at the local sub-district level in one Indian state.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a multimethod approach. The exploratory phase involved interviews and analysis of social enterprise distribution at the national level. Phase 2 involved mapping the distribution of social enterprises at the sub-district level in one state. Distribution around established social enterprises was plotted using latitude–longitude positions. Grounded theory approach to analysing qualitative data was adopted to identify the mechanism for agglomeration.FindingsSocial entrepreneurship sees the entrepreneurial problems as solving universalized social problems abstracting them out of the geo-historical and political economic context of the social problem. This study shows that solving a social problem is itself implicated in a social–historical organizational context of aid giving within developing countries. Networks of resources that early enterprises enable draw newer organizations toward them and lead to the formation of clusters. While such clusters might improve chances of enterprise survival, the phenomenon inadvertently leads to a new kind of inequity, as areas with fewer social enterprises lack the organizational infrastructure necessary for delivery of welfare.Research limitations/implicationsResearch in social enterprises needs to pay more attention to the context of the enterprises or society in addition to its current focus on universal social problems. Social enterprises themselves could be new sources of inequity in terms of the organizational infrastructure they represent.Originality/valuePolicymakers need to make directed efforts that respond not only to social problems but also to the socio-historic-organizational contexts where the problems are being solved and seeding the entrepreneurial effort in those spaces.