Purpose

Nowadays, creation and discovery theories are the two main theoretical approaches supporting the studies on the emergence of enterprises and some scholars analyze these theories in isolation. In addition, studies that investigate the emergence of social enterprises based on these theories together are scarce. This paper aims to analyze if and how discovery and creation theories can coexist in the formation process of social enterprises.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-case study based on semi-structured interviews with the founders of eight Brazilian social enterprises was conducted.

Findings

From the results, it is identified that there is a continuous process between discoveries and creations that lead to the maturation of the initial idea and, consequently, to the formation of a social enterprise. Therefore, a continuous process model between discovery and creation of opportunities in the formation of a social enterprise (i.e. a mixed theoretical approach) is proposed, going beyond a theoretical duality between creation or discovery.

Originality/value

This study helps to overcome limitations inherent in both discovery and creation theories, proposing a mixed theoretical approach. This new theoretical approach praises the existence of new paths to understand the emergence of social enterprises, by overcoming the theoretical duality between creation or discovery of opportunities, i.e. a new understanding of an integrating process rather than a dichotomous one.

中文翻译：

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克服社会企业形成的理论二元性

目的

如今，创造论和发现论是支持企业涌现研究的两种主要理论途径，一些学者对这些理论进行了孤立分析。此外，基于这些理论对社会企业的兴起进行调查的研究也很少。本文旨在分析发现与创造理论在社会企业的形成过程中是否以及如何共存。

设计/方法/方法

基于对八家巴西社会企业创始人的半结构化访谈进行了多案例研究。

发现

从结果中可以看出，发现和创造之间有一个持续的过程，导致初始想法的成熟，从而形成社会企业。因此，提出了在社会企业的形成过程中发现和创造机会之间的连续过程模型（即混合理论方法），超越了创造或发现之间的理论二元性。

原创性/价值

这项研究有助于克服发现理论和创造理论固有的局限性，提出了一种混合的理论方法。这种新的理论方法通过克服机会的创造或发现之间的理论二元性，即对整合过程而不是二分法的新理解，赞扬了理解社会企业出现的新途径的存在。