What is different about social enterprises’ operational practices and capabilities?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the main practices and capabilities developed by social enterprises and to explore the relationship between the dual organizational identity of social enterprises and their operational capabilities. A multiple case-study research is conducted comprising five cases representative of the diversity of social enterprise models. The results suggest that the operations strategy in social enterprises is influenced by their dual organizational identity and entails some operational practices and capabilities beyond those traditionally reported in manufacturing companies. They adopt a greater diversity of practices aimed at improvement and cooperation capabilities and their specificities lead to the development of the mobilization of resources capability and the openness capability. Social enterprises with a high social identity show greater evidence of the development of these operational capabilities. This study contributes to the literature on operations strategy by identifying a set of operational practices and capabilities developed by social enterprises and exploring how they are influenced by their dual organizational identity. It responds to the claims that suggest that studying social enterprises would be a fertile ground to advance theoretical and empirical research in the field of service operations. Developing knowledge on the operations management of social enterprises provides valuable insights into improving the performance of such organizations.