Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the role a full range of activities can play to combat mission drift in a social enterprise. In doing so, it expands understanding of integrated activities to recognize the role of indirect support activities and an activity ecosystem to sustain mission. This paper also provides practical implications about the process for creating such an ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachThis paper relies on an in-depth qualitative study of a for-profit company that later in life became an employee-owned benefit corporation. Data include interviews, informal and formal company documents and a site visit.FindingsThis paper expands the definition of activity integration to recognize indirect mission support, highlights the role an activity ecosystem plays to ensure the viability of these activities, and identifies a set of rules and a three-step process to create the reinforcing ecosystem.Originality/valueCommonly, activities are integrated if the company earns revenues through pursuit of its social mission and differentiated if the company earns revenues not related to its social mission. By comparison, this paper argues for a more nuanced definition of activities to recognize indirect mission support and its role in reinforcing a dual mission.
Highlights
We propose to allot up to 8 hours per annum of Paid Volunteer Time (PVT) for each regular, fulltime employee
Based on the in-depth study of one company, a 48-year-old environmental services organization that transitioned from a sole proprietorship through two additional ownership structures before becoming an employee-owned benefit corporation in 2014, this paper examines the role that this third alternative – indirect contributors, such as PVT – play in helping organizations maintain their dual commercial and social missions
Leaders asked, what does being a public benefit corporation (PBC) mean on the ground? Their response was to establish a three-pillar structure to formalize its public benefit commitment focused on professional engagement, community support and charitable giving, built on a six-year-old sustainability initiative, accompanied by an adaptive learning culture and driven by a topdown and bottom-up effort (Kurland, 2017; Kurland and Schneper, 20121)
Summary
We propose to allot up to 8 hours per annum of Paid Volunteer Time (PVT) for each regular, fulltime employee. This time would be directed, by approving supervisors, to mission-oriented volunteer work at each employee’s discretion. Like other non-accrued labor categories, such as bereavement and jury duty, PVT would only be expensed if charged, would not be carried. The full terms of this licence maybe seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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