Can social enterprises remain sustainable and mission-focused? Applying resiliency theory
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to adapt concepts from resiliency theory to understand the conditions under which social enterprises may remain true to form and purpose or are likely to change their character. This leads us to consider issues of governance, economic incentives associated with different organizational forms of social enterprise and the effects of the financial environment, the role of organizational slack and the influence of organizational leadership on the dynamics of social enterprises. Three case studies of organizations in the USA are analyzed to illustrate the application of resiliency theory to the stability of social enterprises. The fact that all forms of social enterprise must reconcile the tensions of social purpose and market raises important questions about the dynamics of these enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
Theory and case study analysis.
Findings
Governance, financial incentive structure, organizational slack and leadership influence the stability of social enterprises.
Originality/value
First application of resiliency theory to the analysis of social enterprise stability.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank their colleagues Janelle Kerlin Bassett, Simon Teasdale and Jung-In Soh for collaborations on related papers that contributed to their thinking here. They would also like to thank Rodolphe Vidal for first suggesting the relevance of resiliency theory to them for the analysis of the dynamics of social enterprise. In addition, they thank Bryan Norton for helping them to understand some of the nuances of resiliency theory and Cassady Brewer for his help in keeping abreast with new legal forms of enterprise. They also thank several scholars who have provided helpful comments on earlier, related papers, or in forums where some of their ideas were discussed; these include Ben Gidron, Joe Galaskiewicz, Jacques Defourney, Andrea Bassi, Marthe Nyssens and Jill Kickul. Finally, they thank Kevin Shin, Byunwoo Cho and Sa Sung Kim for their help in creating the figures included in this paper.
Citation
Young, D.R. and Kim, C. (2015), "Can social enterprises remain sustainable and mission-focused? Applying resiliency theory", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 233-259. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-02-2015-0005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited