The values work of restorative ventures: The role of founders’ embodied embeddedness with at-risk social groups

Abstract

In line with the recent turn to pro-social ventures, restorative entrepreneuring is a promising approach for delivering social impact to marginalized and at-risk social groups with its focus on establishing ventures to rehabilitate and integrate individuals back into the community. However, the restorative project requires entrepreneurs to engage broadly with diverse sets of stakeholders with divergent worldviews, ideologies, and interests, many of which were the causes of marginalization and stigma for the at-risk social groups the entrepreneurs seek to serve. In this case study, we focus on the role of values as a critical arena where entrepreneurs navigate stakeholders engagement. We analyze Occupy Medical, a restorative venture in Oregon, United States, which provides healthcare services to the unhoused. We analyze how the founders captured and enacted values to establish and sustain the venture in a resource-constrained and often hostile environment. We identify a unique form of values work, embodied embeddedness, as central to these efforts. Our study unpacks the role of values in restorative entrepreneuring as a tool for mitigating social exclusion of at-risk groups, enabling community reclamation of the social problem, and maneuvering local pushback and stigma.