For-profit Enterprises Research Articles

Hippokrates — Medizin in der Verantwortung

This article outlines the main principles on which Hippocrates (ca 460-380 BC) built his medical practice, since it is with him that medicine underwent a sea change from medicine treating mainly wounds (that is, external injuries) to medicine attending to a human being as a whole, medicine that could listen and form a relationship based on trust, observe the symptoms of an internal disorder, and form predictions for which it bore responsibility. Ethical principles drafted by Hippocrates rest on the assumption that all diseases have natural causes, since a human being is at one with the universe and abides by the same laws. It is with the doctor to uncover the causes, and these are only to be obtained through trust and unbiased attitude towards the patient to which multiple descriptions of successful treatment of women and slaves bear sufficient witness. Advances made in hippocratean gynaecology are striking, taking into account the absence of any diagnostic means except for palpation, to say nothing of the despicable attitudes to a woman having to reveal her condition to a doctor, which very often led to deaths through negligence. Thus, in the times when medicine is more than ever a for-profit enterprise or else deemed to be a trade one can enter without any formal training, the author wants us to recall Hippocrates and the point he made of responsibility of one human being to another.

Governing Marine Protected Areas in a Changing Climate: Private Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Climate change has become one of the most pressing problems for both nature and human lives. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are part of a “natural solution” to climate change. Most of existing MPAs are governed by government agencies rather than private stakeholders such as NGOs, local communities and for-profit enterprises. Nevertheless, with the global push to create MPAs, the number of privately governed MPAs is expected to increase. In this context, this paper aims to investigate the role of private stakeholders in enhancing the governance effectiveness of MPAs so as to improve their capability to counter any adverse impact brought by the changing climate. After analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of the practice of each category of private stakeholders are uncovered and specific recommendations are proposed to promote the future practice. With the increasing number of privately governed MPAs in the future, this paper serves as a starting point and contributes to the literature on the study of the private governance of MPAs in the context of the changing climate.

Multidimensional competency construct for social entrepreneurs: A logistic regression approach

Do social entrepreneurs running a for-profit (private, limited) enterprise require different competencies from those running a not-for-profit enterprise? The present research study aimed to answer the above question by proposing and vindicating a multidimensional competency construct that can serve as a succinct base to distinguish for-profit social entrepreneurs from not-for-profit social entrepreneurs. An online survey method was used to elicit responses from 400 Indian social entrepreneurs. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data and to test the hypothesis. The empirical results revealed that for-profit social entrepreneurs did not differ not-for-profit social entrepreneurs in four competencies. By vindicating the competencies relevant for the two different forms of social enterprises, the study contributes to theory development in the field of social entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the study makes an attempt to explore new avenues for social entrepreneurial competencies research, which offer special insight with regard to enterprise form/type. The logistic regression model provides valuable insights for future enquiries by postulating and vindicating competencies as an underpinning for differentiation. The research study is limited to India; hence, it provides scope for further research in other geographical regions in order to generalize the results.

Corporate Social Innovation in Comparison with Corporate Social Responsibility: Integration, Development or Replacement?

The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual insights as to the social dimension of businesses and how it fits into the principles of strategic management of for-profit enterprise. This issue is analyzed with reference to the three paradigms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), social innovation, and corporate social innovation (CSI). Although there have been many studies and a great deal of research on these issues, the qualitative and quantitative analyses done so far have generally analyzed the three paradigms separately, while there has been no analysis of the logical links among them. After identifying CSI as the link in the chain between CSR and social innovation, this paper poses the question of what linkage exists between the two paradigms of CSI and CSR, and in particular of whether CSI integrates, develops, or replaces CSR. In terms of method, the paper is conceptually developed on the basis of the prevailing international literature and secondary data.

Good Capital and Better World Books (A): A Better World for Investing

The purpose of this case is to introduce the topic of socially responsible investing from both the investor and investee perspectives. The students will walk away with an understanding of 1) how to evaluate a portfolio company on a social/environmental mission and on traditional financial criteria, and 2) what considerations should be top of mind for a social venture considering accepting an equity investment. Wes Selke is a portfolio manager at Good Capital, an investment fund created to increase the flow of capital to innovative nonprofit and for-profit social ventures that are using market-based solutions to solve problems of poverty, illiteracy, and inequality. In 2007, Good Capital is ready to make its first growth equity investment in a for-profit social enterprise and Selke is considering Better World Books as the firm's primary target. Selke must evaluate whether or not the firm is a financially sound investment and if its social and environmental missions can be preserved upon a liquidation event. If Good Capital proceeds with the investment, Selke must also rework some of Better World Books' current procedures, including fine-tuning the philanthropic giving strategy that is the main component of its social mission.To expose students to both the investor and investee perspectives in social venture capital (SVC) deal ensuring they understand the criteria that must be considered when evaluating a potential investment in a for-profit social enterprise (investor perspective) and know what questions to ask both the investor and your organization before accepting an equity investment (investee perspective). To emphasize the importance of structuring a deal so that the social/environmental mission of a portfolio company is preserved upon exit.

Good Capital and Better World Books (B): A Better World for Investing

The purpose of this case is to introduce the topic of socially responsible investing from both the investor and investee perspective. The students will walk away with an understanding of: 1) how to evaluate a portfolio company on a social/environmental mission as well as on traditional financial criteria and 2) what considerations should be top of mind for a social venture considering accepting an equity investment. Wes Selke is a portfolio manager at Good Capital, an investment fund created to increase the flow of capital to innovative non- and for-profit social ventures that are using market-based solutions to solve problems of poverty, illiteracy, and inequality. In 2007, Good Capital is ready to make its first growth equity investment in a for-profit social enterprise and Selke is considering Better World Books as the firm's primary target. Selke must evaluate whether or not the firm is a financially sound investment, and if its social and environmental mission can be preserved upon a liquidation event. If Good Capital proceeds with the investment, Selke must also rework some of Better World Books' current procedures, which includes fine-tuning the philanthropic giving strategy that is the main component of its social mission.To expose students to both the investor and investee perspectives in social venture capital (SVC) deal ensuring they understand the criteria that must be considered when evaluating a potential investment in a for-profit social enterprise (investor perspective) and know what questions to ask both the investor and your organization before accepting an equity investment (investee perspective). To emphasize the importance of structuring a deal so that the social/environmental mission of a portfolio company is preserved upon exit.

Beyond Nonprofits: Re-conceptualizing the Third Sector

The idea of a “third sector” beyond the arenas of the state and the market is probably one of the most perplexing concepts in modern political and social discourse, encompassing as it does a tremendous diversity of institutions and behaviors that only relatively recently have been perceived in public or scholarly discourse as a distinct sector, and even then with grave misgivings. Initial work on this concept focused on what is still widely regarded as its institutional core, the vast array of private, nonprofit institutions (NPIs), and the volunteer as well as paid workers they mobilize and engage. These institutions share a crucial characteristic that makes it feasible to differentiate from for-profit enterprises: the fact that they are prohibited from distributing any surplus they generate to their investors, directors, or stakeholders and therefore presumptively serve some broader public interest. Many European scholars have considered this conceptualization too narrow; however, arguing that cooperatives, mutual societies, and, in recent years, “social enterprises” as well as social norms should also be included. However, this broader concept has remained under-conceptualized in reliable operational terms. This article corrects this short-coming and presents a consensus operational re-conceptualization of the third sector fashioned by a group of scholars working under the umbrella of the European Union’s Third Sector Impact Project. This re-conceptualization goes well beyond the widely recognized definition of NPIs included in the UN Handbook on Nonprofit Institutions in the System of National Accounts by embracing as well some, but not all, of these additional institutions and forms of direct individual activity, and does so in a way that meets demanding criteria of comparability, operationalizability, and potential for integration into official statistical systems.

Balancing Competing Logics in For-Profit Social Enterprises: A Need for Hybrid Governance

This paper reports a case study of a for-profit award-winning social enterprise that faced bankruptcy two years after founding. The findings show that the firm's overemphasis on the social employment logic and the increasing disregard of the commercial market logic led to the failure. This imbalance in response to the two competing logics was fuelled by the entrepreneurs’ strong social values, stakeholder reinforcement, and lack of appropriate governance. This study shows that hybrid organizations need to pay attention to the governance of the tension between competing demands inside as well as outside the organization. Hybrid organizations therefore require a hybrid governance model. By presenting a case of failure of a social enterprise, the paper counterbalances the dominance of optimistic idealism in social entrepreneurship literature.

Role of institutional entrepreneurship in building adaptive capacity in community-based healthcare organisations: realist review protocol

IntroductionOver the past 3 decades, there has been a substantial shift to the marketisation of government-funded health services. For organisations traditionally buffered from the competitive pressures of for-profit enterprises, such...

Challenges of Establishing and Operating Social Enterprises

A social enterprise is an organisation that is financially self-sufficient, like a conventional commercial enterprise.However, its primary objective is to achieve the set social purposes and goals that it considers to be important rather than maximizing profits This definition implies that social enterprises show similarities with both civil organisations and for-profit enterprises. Consequently, there are specific challenges related to their foundation and accounting. Since maximizing profits and social and environmental benefits are equally important during the operation of these enterprises, the profits they generate are used to achieve further social goals and are not distributed to individual shareholders. Thus, income from supplying goods and services constitutes the major source of their income. Successful social enterprises generate profit which is reinvested to subsidise the social mission they have defined. Their assets can often be used for community purposes exclusively.

Narzędzia analizy finansowej w jednostkach samorządu terytorialnego

Though LGU activities differ considerably from those of for-profit enterprises, financial analysis tools can prove immensely helpful in decision-making and in evaluating the broader performance of the LGUs. Using a number of indicators and interpreting them, the author seeks to show that the financial analysis of LGUs provides a range of useful information, not only for their management, but for all stakeholders with an interest in the efficiency and quality of LGU activities. The paper highlights the merits of conducting a financial analysis of local government units and presents the basic tools used for the analysis.

"Family Social For-Profit Enterprises: Integrating Family, Community and Market Logics"

Family enterprises are a long-standing and pervasive organizational form. The recent emergence of social for-profit enterprise (SFP) legal structures offers new options for incorporation to family ...

The Business of Slow Journalism

This study examines the commercial viability of Slow Journalism in light of its recent efforts to reinvent the business model in the news industry today that relies heavily or exclusively on display advertising for revenue. Some Slow Journalism companies, such as De Correspondent and Delayed Gratification, have defiantly positioned themselves in opposition to advertising’s prominent role in mitigating free online news production and consumption, which they argue is both philosophically and financially anathema to the intimate journalist–reader interface. Still others, such as Narratively, have also eliminated display advertisements, but openly embrace brand sponsorship through events, creative agency, and native advertising. Touting visually pleasing high-end production values for immersive reading environments free of distracting display advertisements, many publishers promote a relation in which supply meets demand without undisclosed, conflicting third-party or corporate interest. This research explores the methods by which several prominent Slow Journalism organizations have mobilized a critique of corporate media to strategically communicate their maverick missions. The case studies examine Delayed Gratification, De Correspondent, Narratively, and The Big Roundtable as expressions of Slow Journalism’s experimental approaches to for-profit enterprise through alternative media business models.

Planning the supply of rewards with cooperative promotion considerations in coalition loyalty programmes management

Coalition loyalty programmes (CLPs) are owned and operated as for-profit enterprises. We consider the ordering decisions of rewards that arise in this context, under a general setting in which not only is the demand for rewards uncertain, but also the CLP firm offers bonus points, a very common cooperative promotion mechanism used in loyalty programmes. The rewards are acquired either at a wholesale ‘discounted’ cost or at a wholesale ‘non-discounted’ cost by the CLP firm from its multiple commercial partners and supplied to customers seeking to redeem their accumulated ‘reward points’, subject to commercial partners’ capacities for offering rewards, the firm’s overall budget for purchasing rewards, and its control policy on points liability. We formulate the problem as a stochastic linear programme with recourse and solve it using a sampling-based heuristic solution procedure previously discussed in the literature. We report on the managerial applicability of our model in dealing with the redemption budget spending resulting from changes in demand variability, changes in the redemption budget, and the control of liability levels within a reasonable range.

Grupo Islita: Is Financial Sustainability Better Secured by Becoming a Non-profit Organisation or a For-profit Enterprise?

This article presents a teaching case on a non-profit organisation that serves the base of the pyramid populations in Costa Rica. The organisation needs to determine whether its financial sustainability is better secured by increasing its services or by seeking funds from the donor market. The case presents three teaching goals. First, participants will learn the pros and cons of gaining financial resources as a non-profit organisation or as a business with significant social and environmental impacts. Second, participants will understand how an organisation can integrate poor communities into its core business. Finally, participants will reflect on the challenges that a management team faces when selling a socially oriented, sustainability-driven hotel service that is located in a high poverty area to upscale tourists or donors.

The Cold War and the 1984 Olympic Games: A Soviet-American Surrogate War

<i>The Cold War and the 1984 Olympic Games: A Soviet-American Surrogate War</i>

Commitments, Disrupted: Understanding and Addressing Commitment Drift in For-Profit Enterprises

Businesses frequently make promises and commitments to employees, customers, investors and civil society as a means to secure resources or obtain cooperation. Many of these commitments are made on behalf of the business as an organization, as if it were a moral actor. Yet evidence suggests that businesses do not have a strong track record for keeping commitments and broken commitments contribute to stakeholder distrust. Though historical explanations emphasize the role of “bad apples” or old-fashioned personal greed and static individual traits above all, recent work on institutional and organizational corruption suggests that “bad barrels” or individual-, interpersonal-, and group-level factors may also be at play. Yet even these views are relatively narrow, which has led to “a relative neglect of the role of processes and systems” in creating corruption. Separate bodies of research suggest that unclear or ambiguous commitments or failures in “connecting the dots” across organizations can also contribute to “commitment drift.” We therefore argue for the inclusion of “weak commitments” and disconnected dots as two additional sources of institutional and organizational corruption. Given these four possible causes, we argue that keeping organizational commitments may be harder than it first appears, and that developing commitment-keeping competence could help companies advance their own interests as well as build trust with other stakeholders. In this paper, we report on a project to develop and pilot two tools for diagnosing “commitment drift” and building commitment-keeping competence: a Commitment Scorecard and a Commitment-Keeping Employee Survey. We draw on an 18-month multi-methods study with a U.S.-based global Fortune 500 company whose CEO had committed to keeping promises as an explicit business strategy, where we piloted the Survey and Scorecard. We begin by outlining a working causal model of commitment drift. We then analyze the Employee Survey and Commitment Scorecard pilot results, and present implications for future study.

Consumer Reactions to Products of Social Enterprises : An Application of the Stereotype Content Model

Social enterprises that seek to pursue socially desirable goals through economic profits have received considerable attention in recent years. Despite the widespread attention paid to social enterprises, they often achieve limited success in markets. This research examines how types of enterprises affect consumer judgments. This research considers two types of enterprises: social and for-profit enterprises. Building on the stereotype content model, we propose that consumers perceive social enterprises using the dimensions of warmth and competence. Study 1 shows that a product of a for-profit enterprise is judged as having higher performance, but being less meaningful; in contrast, a product of a social enterprise is judged as warmer, but less competent. Further, in Study 2, we demonstrate that consumers’ willingness to buy products can be lowered when the products are offered by a social enterprise. Practical and theoretical implications are further discussed.

Consumer Reactions to Products of Social Enterprises

Social enterprises that seek to pursue socially desirable goals through economic profits have received considerable attention in recent years. Despite the widespread attention paid to social enterprises, they often achieve limited success in markets. This research examines how types of enterprises affect consumer judgments. This research considers two types of enterprises: social and for-profit enterprises. Building on the stereotype content model, we propose that consumers perceive social enterprises using the dimensions of warmth and competence. Study 1 shows that a product of a for-profit enterprise is judged as having higher performance, but being less meaningful; in contrast, a product of a social enterprise is judged as warmer, but less competent. Further, in Study 2, we demonstrate that consumers’ willingness to buy products can be lowered when the products are offered by a social enterprise. Practical and theoretical implications are further discussed.

A modest proposal: Right-sizing exchange immunity

The US securities industry is governed by three regimes: federal disclosure rules, state laws and self-regulatory organisations. The self-regulatory scheme is the result of an 80-year-old compromise conceived during the height of the Great Depression. While today’s industry is unrecognisable from that time, the self-regulatory rules remain nearly unchanged. Specifically, the US exchanges — sanctioned as self-regulatory organisations with immunity from private damages suits — evolved from mutually-owned utilities to for-profit enterprises. At the same time, alternative trading systems now execute significant trading volumes outside the traditional exchange venues. Despite these and other developments, the self-regulatory regime remains almost entirely unchanged from its inception. This paper discusses important facets of the US self-regulation debate.