Social Enterprises and Public Value: A Multiple-Case Study Assessment

Abstract

Positioned at the crossroads of the market, public policies and civil society, social enterprises are private organizations that achieve social goals and, in an entrepreneurial way, respond to collective needs. By considering the micro-foundation of value generation as emerging from the assessment of three Italian social cooperatives’ business models, the aim of this paper is to understand the contribution, and the approach adopted by work integration social enterprises to the creation of public value. Our findings suggest that the approach adopted in order to generate value, changes according to several contextual factors. We identified, in particular, three models (the cooperative-driven, the people-driven, and the market-driven model) that are characterized by different relationship with the cooperative system, a differentiated tension toward commercial activities and specific catalysts for value creation.