Social enterprises (SEs) that receive early stakeholder support for their dual economic/social missions risk losing moral legitimacy when stakeholders assess them for social impact and find it lacking. We present a process model that begins at the “fork in the road” of stakeholder assessment and shows that when SEs continue to focus on primary stakeholders at the expense of secondary stakeholders impacted by the firm, they risk losing moral legitimacy and broader stakeholder support. Our model shows the process by which SEs can leverage their moral imagination and develop capabilities to generate long-term stakeholder support and sustained value creation.

当利益相关者对其社会影响进行评估并发现缺乏道德合法性时，社会企业 (SE) 因其双重经济/社会使命而获得早期利益相关者支持的风险。我们提出了一个从利益相关者评估的“岔路口”开始的流程模型，并表明当社会企业继续关注主要利益相关者而牺牲受公司影响的次要利益相关者时，他们可能会失去道德合法性和更广泛的利益相关者支持。我们的模型展示了社会企业利用其道德想象力和发展能力以产生长期利益相关者支持和持续价值创造的过程。