Managing the Commercial-Social Paradox With Different Forms of Organizing

Abstract

As businesses recognize the importance of accommodating the expectations and needs of stakeholders, modern businesses in the twenty-first century have to balance business profits and social conscience. This chapter aims to introduce an impact-profit matrix that explains how the commercial-social paradox is managed by different organizations or social programs. Four different types of competing logics are presented: (i) limited social and low financial values; (ii) limited social and high financial values; (iii) high social and low financial values; and (iv) high social and high financial values. Moreover, different business examples are presented to illustrate how each of the competing logic type is operated.