Social Purpose Organizations Research Articles

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS): expectations of serving more

Learning outcomes After completion of this case study, students will be able to help participants appreciate how the personal experiences of the founder(s) shape the inception of a social venture and impact its ongoing evolution; elucidate the intricacies and challenges inherent in managing a mission-driven organization dedicated to serving the underserved segments of society; emphasize the difficulties associated with exploring opportunities for scaling up a social venture; and facilitate comprehension of the various options and strategies available for achieving scalability. Case overview/synopsis The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), founded in 1992–1993 by Prof. Achyuta Samanta in Bhubaneswar, was a pioneering institution with a distinctive focus on providing high-quality education at all levels, exclusively to tribal students. From its inception, KISS remained unwavering in its commitment to the holistic development of marginalized tribal communities. It offered not just free education but also comprehensive support, including accommodation, food and health care, to thousands of students spanning from kindergarten to post-graduation levels. Remarkably, KISS held the unique distinction of being the world’s only university dedicated to tribal education. Over the years, KISS witnessed remarkable growth, evolving from a modest 125 students in 1992–1993 to a thriving community of 30,000 students. Its success garnered attention from federal and state governments, public institutions, philanthropists and corporations, all intrigued by the prospect of replicating its transformative model in diverse regions of the country. KISS even received invitations to establish similar campuses in neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. What set KISS apart was its self-sustaining approach. While it did receive support from like-minded organizations and government schemes, it operated without charging any fees to its students. This ethos posed a unique challenge for Samanta: determining the nature and extent of support and resources required should KISS choose to expand its impact beyond its current boundaries. Complexity academic level This case study is suited for inclusion in courses pertaining to social innovation and non-profit management, particularly in modules around the theme of scaling social innovation. It provides an illustration of the growth trajectory of social innovation-oriented ventures and the key factors underlining their success and sustainability. Furthermore, this case study delves into the inherent tensions that often emerge during the process of scaling up such initiatives. In addition to the MBA-level courses, this case study can also be used as a resource for executive education programs with a specific focus on social purpose organizations and those dedicated to fostering partnerships in pursuit of social goals. It offers insights into the dynamics of these organizations and their collaborative efforts towards achieving social impact. To effectively explore and analyse the case material, instructors should allocate approximately 70–90 min of class discussion time. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS11: Strategy.

How impact investing funds invest in social‐purpose organizations: A cross‐country comparison

AbstractImpact investing funds (IIFs) are a type of investment fund that aims to achieve both financial and social goals, and they have become a valuable resource for social purpose organizations (SPOs) seeking capital. Our research evaluates the investment process by comparing approaches in two countries, Italy and Australia. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with 9 IIFs and 12 SPOs and used the Gioia Methodology to conduct the data analysis. We found both similar features and divergences. The investing process by IIFs in Australia is conservative, more risk averse and more profit‐oriented with a predominant “finance‐first” strategy. By contrast, in Italy there is a clear preference for “impact‐led” investment. We argue this illustrates a fundamental difference in investment philosophy and that IIFs in the two countries navigate, interpret, and understand the field of impact investment in contrasting ways. Finally, we contribute to the growing literature on impact investing by putting forward an “ideal” impact investment process that respects the integrity and peculiarities of the Social Impact Investment approach.

Examining the role of market learning in innovation-based dual performance in social purpose organizations (SPOs)

ABSTRACT This study builds on the growing view in the market orientation (MO) literature that market learning alone is inadequate to deliver high-value adding innovations. Addressing the limitations of direct adaptation of market orientation (MO) measures to an SPO context, we conceptualize market learning to capture a broader set of stakeholders that influences SPO marketing campaigns. The study design adopts a two-stage, multi-method design: a qualitative study focused on building an SPO context-specific research model, followed by a quantitative study of testing the model in a larger sampling frame of SPOs. The findings of the study support our theorization that market learning stimulates network learning yet has no direct effect on social innovation. Our paper contributes to the strategic marketing literature by conceptualizing the market-learning construct that captures the SPO context and examining its interplay with network learning, which is suggested to impact the dual social and economic value creation.

Building the de-risking state: Power, policy and Canada’s Social Finance Fund

In 2018 the Canadian Government announced the Social Finance Fund, a $755 million pool of public capital with the purpose of accelerating the growth of social finance markets in Canada. The Fund promises to unlock large new sources of funding for social purpose organizations by de-risking private investments (reducing investor losses by providing capital that will be lost first in case of investee default), dually offering investors financial returns as well as an opportunity to do social good with their capital. While the literature has interrogated the theoretical contradictions present in social finance markets, there has been little attention to how social finance markets emerge through acts of policy, and how de-risking private capital becomes a priority of the state. This paper examines how the changing network of actors over decades of policy debate led to the evolution and launch of the Social Finance Fund. The paper also argues that international policy learning was critical to the prioritization of de-risking private investments in social finance markets.

Institutionalizing Experimental Places for Inclusive Social Innovation: From Utopias to Heterotopias

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopias and heterotopias in Foucault, the paper sheds light on the opportunity to move from policy utopias to democratic heterotopias, discussing the politics embedded in this cognitive shift and the democratic nature of social innovation changing social and governance relations by interacting with politico-administrative systems. Some obstacles to institutionalizing social innovation are highlighted, as well as some key governance mechanisms that can be activated either by public and/or social purpose organizations to try to overcome those obstacles. Finally, we discuss the importance of linking inclusive social innovation with democratic, rather than market logics.

Saving the world through private‐sector efficiency and local empowerment? Discursive legitimacy construction for social entrepreneurship in the Global South

AbstractIn efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, social entrepreneurship has gained popularity as a vehicle for positive change in developing countries. The multiplicity of stakeholders, diverging sociocultural contexts and the hybrid mission complicate the process of legitimacy construction for social entrepreneurs as a basis for the acquisition of scarce resources. This study investigates how social entrepreneurs operating in Sub‐Saharan Africa and Asia tackle this challenge of bridging conflicting directions in discursive interaction with their European funders. We conduct a multimodal discourse analysis to uncover discursive strategies for legitimacy construction by combining linguistic data from interviews with visual data from social media accounts. Legitimacy construction, and thus resource acquisition, centers on three aspects which interlink pragmatic, cognitive and moral legitimacy: developing innovative solutions, mobilizing private‐sector efficiency, and contributing to local empowerment. Presenting these aspects as mutually reinforcing overcomes contradictions between social and business logics and provides an expanded space for legitimacy construction of social entrepreneurship. Discursively constructing legitimacy around a ‘glorified version of social entrepreneurship’ mobilizes resources but downplays the risk of being an entrepreneur in the Global South, contributing to increasing corporatization of social purpose organizations.

Common Approach to Impact Measurement: Four Community-Driven Flexible Standards for More Interoperable Impact Data

Common Approach to Impact Measurement (Common Approach) is a set of four flexible impact measurement standards designed to empower charities, nonprofits, coops, social purpose businesses (collectively referred to as social purpose organizations or SPOs), and those they serve to identify which impacts are most meaningful. These standards are not designed to make measurement more rigorous or more accurate; rather, they make measurement more useful and interoperable, and, eventually, more attuned to the priorities of those impacted.

The Emergence and Evolution of Digital Social Ventures in Dublin, Ireland

Digital social ventures are initiatives that intend to transformatively engage social and environmental problems through the application of digital technology and are a new phenomenon found globally. While the broad influence and consequences of disruptive digital technology are increasingly taken for granted, very little research focuses on the deliberate use of digital technology for social purpose. This study is situated within three areas of literature: disruption caused by digital innovations, the use of digital technology by social purpose organizations, and social entrepreneurship. The process of digital social venture emergence and evolution shows how flashy-sounding technological solutions develop into more modest and incrementally useful tech-supported adjuncts. A preliminary framework for conceptualizing the nature and process of digital social ventures shows how a Schumpeterian approach to social entrepreneurship as disrupting equilibrium gives way to a Hayekian approach as drawing on local, embedded knowledge to achieve incremental change.

Exploring micro-foundations of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities in social purpose organizations

PurposeThis study aims to explore the micro-foundations of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities (KBDCs) in social purpose organizations (SPOs). The KBDCs facilitate SPOs to successfully manage the acquisition, creation and combination of knowledge to sustain their pursuit of socioeconomic value creation by effectively recognizing and addressing opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a multiple-case study research design based on the semi-structured interviews of the founders and top managers of case SPOs. The semi-structured interviews were then compared with the theoretical framework of KBDCs following an abductive research approach.FindingsThis study identifies that certain capabilities are required to recognize and leverage the opportunities by SPOs. The authors found ten micro-foundations of KBDCs that sustain successful operationalization and overall development in SPOs. By using an abductive reasoning approach, the authors noted that certain KBDCs are essentially required for the operationalization and overall development of SPOs.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors conducted “semi-structured interviews” of founders and top managers that are retrospective in nature. From the implication viewpoint, this study provides insights for practitioners and researchers as it deepens the comprehension and contribution of knowledge and knowledge-related activities and procedures in SPOs.Practical implicationsKBDCs and their specific micro-foundations can help social entrepreneurs to delineate their idea, strategic processes and actions to achieve effective operationalization and overall sustainable development.Originality/valueThis study improves the understanding of Teece et al. (1997) theoretical construct of dynamic capabilities (DCs) and extends the framework of Zheng et al. (2011) simultaneously by exploring KBDCs that develop in the context of SPOs. The authors used an abductive reasoning approach that is vital for exploring dynamic capabilities; consequently, this study contributes to the approach of DCs and proffers a methodological advancement that can facilitate future research in this direction.

Social R&D in Four Portraits: An Exploratory Study of the Eerging Feld of Social Research and Development in Canada’s Nonprofit Sector

Since 2015, Canadian practitioners and funders have been adapting research and development (R&D) principles and practices to the context of social purpose organizations (SPOs) to increase the trans-sectoral capacity to generate social innovations. As a result, Social R&D is rapidly gaining popularity among a diversified array of organizations. This article distills the findings of a mix-methods exploratory study and offers a typology of four different Social R&D conceptualizations and practices. An analysis of the literature and of the empirical findings indicates a general lack of shared understanding about what Social R&D entails as a concept or a process. Further precision of meaning is needed to judge of Social R&D’s specific value or to responsibly support its implementation through policy.

Prosocial Behavior and Contributors to Older Adults’ Well-Being in Daily Life

This symposium reports findings from a national experience-sampling study of 165 older adults (mean age=71, range=60-88 years) who are heavily involved in prosocial activity, contributing to their communities as leaders or high-commitment volunteers in social-purpose organizations. Gerontological research has linked prosocial activity to a set of positive outcomes for the older adults who engage in it (e.g., better health and reduced mortality), including global measures of well-being such as life satisfaction. However, little is known about the contributors to these individuals’ momentary well-being. Four presentations address this gap in knowledge. In the first presentation, Dwight Tse revisits the concept of successful aging as a within-person variable with day-to-day variations. Experience sampling data revealed great variations in successful aging indicators, and successful aging was associated with better well-being as hypothesized. In the second presentation, Ajit Mann extends beyond general control beliefs and explores the diversity in distribution of control beliefs across various daily activities (e.g., active leisure, prosocial activity, socializing, etc.), in addition to investigating the relationship between later life control diversity and subjective well-being. In the third presentation, Kelsey Finley explores Aristotle’s concept of the golden mean (an ideal state between deficiency and excess) for the number of hours spent in prosocial work on momentary well-being outcomes. In the fourth presentation, Jeanne Nakamura examines the relationship between global meaning in life and meaningful engagement in the moment, illuminating variation in this relationship through a comparison of the prosocial leaders and high-commitment volunteers.

Combining SDGs: The Need for a Responsive Approach to Manage Sustainability Paradoxes

Social purpose organizations are increasingly facing the need to address multiple sustainable development goals simultaneously. One way to address multiple sustainability demands is to seek synergies among them, while minimizing underling tensions between those demands. Paradox lenses are increasingly used to understand how organizations can manage conflicting –yet interrelated– sustainability goals. Via action research in the setting of a Dutch housing association, we analyse the process of strategy change while observing the societal response to this change. First, we identify the synergies and conflicts of the organization’s sustainable demands, which we categorize as good intentions and unintended consequences, respectively. Second, we define specific types of sustainability paradoxes that emerge while implementing a new sustainable goal. Our abductive study shows that a poor management of tensions hinders an organization’s proactive stance to solving sustainability challenges. We contribute to the literature on social purpose organizations by showing that a proactive approach to sustainability does not always lead to positive social impacts and suggesting that responsive approaches are to be preferred when combining sustainable development goals that show paradoxical relationships among each other.

Post Covid-19 Agenda for Nonprofit & Social Economy Research

This article outlines six areas of research that would help Canada’s social purpose sector recover and move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the sector needs big picture thinking about its role in a post-pandemic world. Second, it needs research on the needs currently being met—or left unmet—by social purpose organizations. Third, it needs research that helps social purpose organizations measure and communicate their value and impact. Fourth, researchers could examine the sector’s advocacy efforts during the pandemic and the results of these efforts. Fifth, there is a need for research on the larger ecosystem in which social purpose organizations operate. Finally, the pandemic presents an opportunity to study how different organizations responded to a crisis and to learn from their experiences.

A Post Covid-19 Agenda for Nonprofit & Social Economy Research

This article outlines six areas of research that would help Canada’s social purpose sector recover and move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the sector needs big picture thinking about its role in a post-pandemic world. Second, it needs research on the needs currently being met—or left unmet—by social purpose organizations. Third, it needs research that helps social purpose organizations measure and communicate their value and impact. Fourth, researchers could examine the sector’s advocacy efforts during the pandemic and the results of these efforts. Fifth, there is a need for research on the larger ecosystem in which social purpose organizations operate. Finally, the pandemic presents an opportunity to study how different organizations responded to a crisis and to learn from their experiences.

Post Covid-19 Agenda for Nonprofit & Social Economy Research

This article outlines six areas of research that would help Canada’s social purpose sector recover and move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the sector needs big picture thinking about its role in a post-pandemic world. Second, it needs research on the needs currently being met—or left unmet—by social purpose organizations. Third, it needs research that helps social purpose organizations measure and communicate their value and impact. Fourth, researchers could examine the sector’s advocacy efforts during the pandemic and the results of these efforts. Fifth, there is a need for research on the larger ecosystem in which social purpose organizations operate. Finally, the pandemic presents an opportunity to study how different organizations responded to a crisis and to learn from their experiences.

Enhancing value creation in social purpose organizations: Business models that leverage networks

As social purpose organizations (SPOs) feature dual economic and social goals, contemporary research is beginning to grasp the importance of value creation being shared amongst network actors. However, how an SPO's business model can fully leverage the resources of others to enable and enhance value creation has not yet been fully explained. Drawing on interview data, video-graphic content analysis and secondary data, this study investigates the case of a German music festival to explore how shared value creation has been enhanced by moving from an organization-centric business model to instead become a platform for engagement with numerous other actor groups. This study contributes to the social enterprise literature by demonstrating that despite modest funding and minimal staffing, an organization can bring together a broad network of others to engage in resource integration and shared value creation for social good.

How to stay on the road? A business model perspective on mission drift in social purpose organizations

Hybrid organizations like social purpose organizations (SPOs) frequently innovate their business models (BM) due to environmental constraints aiming to create social value while striving for economic viability. Competing demands may cause the SPO to drift to one mission, jeopardizing hybridity and the mission. However, research on mission drift is still in its infancy and lacks empirical evidence. We rely on a multiple-case study approach, using the BM as a unit of analysis to identify key choices and consequences concerning possible mission drift. Our findings show a complex set of choices and consequences that reinforce social value creation, facilitate and prevent mission drift in SPOs. We outline the role of stakeholders and transparency as key to prevent mission drift and to enhance legitimacy, challenging research on stakeholders’ constraining nature. We argue for investigating business model innovations’ consequences on mission drift and contribute to the literature on SPOs and business model innovation by providing evidence of cycles of choices and consequences, risking the SPO to disregard either the social or economic mission.

Reference points for business model innovation in social purpose organizations: A stakeholder perspective

Social purpose organizations pursue dual missions and address heterogeneous stakeholders, which offers them a broad range of opportunities to innovate their business models. In this paper, we identify key stakeholders of social purpose organizations – beneficiaries, donors, customers, employees, partners, competitors, and the government – and use them as reference points to analyze how the business model processes of value creation, delivery, and capture can be innovated. Our analysis identifies the key activities within each value process and the types of actions how social purpose organizations can pursue innovation related to each stakeholder group to expand in scale (impact width) or scope (impact depth). In increasingly competitive and constrained environments, we argue that, by considering the various ways how value can be created for, delivered with, and captured from key stakeholders, business model innovation may have the greatest potential to sustain social purpose organizations and increase their social impact.

Business model innovation by international social purpose organizations: The role of dynamic capabilities

This paper examines the role played by dynamic capabilities and business model innovation in international social purpose organizations (ISPOs)11International Social Purpose Organizations (ISPOs). operating across developing and developed countries. Utilizing a qualitative multiple case study methodology, we identify a set of dynamic capabilities deployed and leveraged by these organizations for business model innovation in order to achieve their dual mission of social and economic value creation. The findings highlight unique micro-foundational capabilities of the founders that are vitally important to perceive social challenges as opportunities for ISPOs to sense socially and economically intertwined prospects. We discuss the specific organizational-level capabilities—at both the production and selling sites—that are developed and utilized by ISPOs to seize opportunities by combining competing social and economic logics. In relation to transformation, ISPOs develop ecosystem-wide production- and market-related capabilities—in both developing and developed countries—that enable them to scale-up their dual mission business model through co-creation.

THE DAY-TO-DAY EXPERIENCES OF LATER-LIFE PROSOCIAL WORK: AN EXPERIENCE SAMPLING METHOD STUDY

As one form of productive aging, many older adults undertake significant prosocial activity. Alongside its contribution to the welfare of others, prosocial activity has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes for those undertaking it (e.g., higher life satisfaction). However, little is known about the impact of this activity on older adults’ day-to-day lives. We studied a national sample of about 150 older adults who give back to their communities on a regular basis in one of two ways: either by playing leadership roles in social-purpose organizations or as more traditional volunteer workers in such organizations. We employed the experience sampling method to describe and compare the experience of prosocial activity during a typical week for these two groups of highly engaged adults. While prosocial activity carries both costs and rewards, these show differences as well as similarities for the two groups. Implications for research and practice are discussed.