Abstract
This study explores questions around the abilities of social enterprises (SEs) to obtain market-based revenues in the context of a middle-income country with significant institutional and economic constraints (Egypt). Our main research question focuses on analyzing the reasons why SEs in this context are unable to obtain their desired level of market-based revenues. Through the analysis of 22 SEs with some degree of a mixed revenue model, we draw three major conclusions that contribute to both academic theory and SE practice: (a) the importance of investing in new cohorts of SE employees, (b) ways to increase SEs’ ability to respond to institutional barriers, and (c) the promotion of adaptive organizational models able to respond to changing external conditions. The study makes several contributions to the literature. Most importantly, it seeks to add findings to discussion around how SEs operate within constraints by providing real-life empirical data from a context that faces significant institutional and resource barriers. It adds to the current literature by offering insights on organizational capacity, institutions, legitimacy, and adaptability that can be applied to other countries with similar socio-economic contexts. Methodologically, it also makes an effort to move beyond biases of studying only successful SEs, to offer micro-level qualitative analysis of SEs, and to hear unique and potentially alternative perspectives to academic narratives rooted in concept and theory by better understanding how social entrepreneurs themselves perceive their own work and practices.
References
Alvord, Sarah H., L. David Brown, and Christine W. Letts. 2004. “Social Entrepreneurship and Societal Transformation.” The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 40 (3): 260–82.10.1177/0021886304266847Search in Google Scholar
Aronson, Jodi. 1994. “A Pragmatic View of Thematic Analysis.” The Qualitative Report 2 (1): 1–3.10.46743/2160-3715/1995.2069Search in Google Scholar
Attride-Stirling, Jennifer. 2001. “Thematic Networks: An Analytic Tool for Qualitative Research.” Qualitative Research 1 (3): 385–405.10.1177/146879410100100307Search in Google Scholar
Austin, James, Howard Stevenson, and Jane Wei-Skillern. 2006. “Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship: Same, Different, or Both?” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 30 (1): 1–22.10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00107.xSearch in Google Scholar
Battilana, Julie, and Silvia Dorado. 2010. “Building Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations.” The Academy of Management Journal 53 (6): 1419–40.10.5465/amj.2010.57318391Search in Google Scholar
Battilana, Julie, and Matthew Lee. 2014. “Advancing Research on Hybrid Organizing – Insights from the Study of Social Enterprises.” The Academy Of Management Annals 8 (1): 397–441.10.5465/19416520.2014.893615Search in Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Maitreesh Ghatak. 2017. “Profit with Purpose? A Theory of Social Enterprise.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 9 (3): 19–58.10.1257/pol.20150495Search in Google Scholar
Bridgstock, Ruth, Fiona Lettice, Mustafa F. Özbilgin, and Ahu Tatli. 2010. “Diversity Management for Innovation in Social Enterprises in the UK.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 22 (6): 557–74.10.1080/08985626.2010.488404Search in Google Scholar
Bull, Michael. 2008. “Challenging Tensions: Critical, Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives on Social Enterprise.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research 14 (5): 268–75.10.1108/13552550810897641Search in Google Scholar
Dacin, Peter A., M. Tina Dacin, and Margaret Matear. 2010. “Social Entrepreneurship: Why We Don’t Need a New Theory and How We Move Forward from Here.” Academy of Management Perspectives 24 (3): 37–57.Search in Google Scholar
Dart, Raymond. 2004. “The Legitimacy of Social Enterprise.” Nonprofit Management and Leadership 14 (4): 411–24.10.1002/nml.43Search in Google Scholar
Dees, J. Gregory. 1998. “Enterprising Nonprofits.” Harvard Business Review 76 (1): 54–67.Search in Google Scholar
Defourny, Jacques, and Marthe Nyssens. 2017. “Fundamentals for an International Typology of Social Enterprise Models.” Voluntas 28: 2469–97.10.1007/s11266-017-9884-7Search in Google Scholar
Dey, Pascal, and Chris Steyaert. 2012. “Social Entrepreneurship: Critique and the Radical Enactment of the Social.” Social Enterprise Journal 8 (2): 90–107.10.1108/17508611211252828Search in Google Scholar
Di Domenico, Maria Laura, Helen Haugh, and Paul Tracey. 2010. “Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34 (4): 681–703.10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00370.xSearch in Google Scholar
Doherty, Bob, Helen Haugh, and Fergus Lyon. 2014. “Social Enterprises as Hybrid Organizations: A Review and Research Agenda.” International Journal of Management Reviews 16 (4): 417–36.10.1111/ijmr.12028Search in Google Scholar
Dohrmann Susanne, Raith Matthias, and Siebold Nicole. 2015. “Monetizing Social Value Creation – A Business Model Approach.” Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, 5 (2): 127–154, April.10.1515/erj-2013-0074Search in Google Scholar
Ebrahim, Alnoor, Julie Battilana, and Johanna Mair. 2014. “The Governance of Social Enterprises: Mission Drift and Accountability Challenges in Hybrid Organizations.” Research in Organizational Behavior 34: 81–100.10.1016/j.riob.2014.09.001Search in Google Scholar
Eikenberry, Angela M. 2009. “Refusing the Market: A Democratic Discourse for Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 38 (4): 582–96.10.1177/0899764009333686Search in Google Scholar
Eikenberry, Angela M., and Jodie Drapal Kluver. 2004. “The Marketization of the Nonprofit Sector: Civil Society at Risk?” Public Administration Review 64 (2): 132–40.10.1111/j.1540-6210.2004.00355.xSearch in Google Scholar
Foster, William, and Jeffrey Bradach. 2005. “Should Nonprofits Seek Profits?” Harvard Business Review 83: 92–100.Search in Google Scholar
Guo, Baorong. 2006. “Charity for Profit? Exploring Factors Associated with the Commercialization of Human Service Nonprofits.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 35 (1): 123–38.10.1177/0899764005282482Search in Google Scholar
Hartnell, Caroline. 2018. “Philanthropy in the Arab Region: A Working Paper.” Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace in association with Alliance, Arab Foundations Forum, John D Gerhart Center for Philanthropy, Philanthropy Age, SAANED, and WINGS.Search in Google Scholar
Haski-Leventhal, Debbie, and Akriti Mehra. 2016. “Impact Measurement in Social Enterprises: Australia and India.” Social Enterprise Journal 12 (1): 78–103.10.1108/SEJ-05-2015-0012Search in Google Scholar
Jack, Sarah, Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd, and Alistair R. Anderson. 2008. “Change and the Development of Entrepreneurial Networks over Time: A Processual Perspective.” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 20 (2): 125–59.10.1080/08985620701645027Search in Google Scholar
Jones, Marshall B. 2007. “The Multiple Sources of Mission Drift.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 36: 299–307.10.1177/0899764007300385Search in Google Scholar
Karanda, Crispen, and Nuria Toledano. 2012. “Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa: A Different Narrative for a Different Context.” Social Enterprise Journal 8 (3): 201–15.10.1108/17508611211280755Search in Google Scholar
Kerlin, Janelle A., and Tom H. Pollak. 2010. “Nonprofit Commercial Revenue: A Replacement for Declining Government Grants and Contributions?” American Review of Public Administration 41 (6): 686–704.10.1177/0275074010387293Search in Google Scholar
Lamy, Erwan. 2017. “How to Make Social Entrepreneurship Sustainable? A Diagnosis and a Few Elements of a Response.” Journal of Business Ethics Forthcoming: 1–18.10.1007/s10551-017-3485-7Search in Google Scholar
Lee, Matthew. 2014. “Mission and Market? The Performance of Hybrid Social Ventures.” Working Paper, Harvard Business School.10.5465/ambpp.2014.13958abstractSearch in Google Scholar
Lepoutre, Jan, Rachida Justo, Siri Terjesen, and Niels Bosma. 2013. “Designing a Global Standardized Methodology for Measuring Social Entrepreneurship Activity: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Social Entrepreneurship Study.” Small Business Economics 40: 693–714.10.1007/s11187-011-9398-4Search in Google Scholar
Lewis, Marianne W., Constantine Andriopoulos, and Wendy K. Smith. 2014. “Paradoxical Leadership to Enable Strategic Agility.” California Management Review 56 (3): 58–77.10.1525/cmr.2014.56.3.58Search in Google Scholar
Littlewood, David, and Diane Holt. 2018. “Social Entrepreneurship in South Africa: Exploring the Influence of Environment.” Business & Society 57 (3): 525–61.10.1177/0007650315613293Search in Google Scholar
Lumpkin, G. T., Todd W. Moss, David M. Gras, Shoko Kato, and Alejandro S. Amezcua. 2013. “Entrepreneurial Processes in Social Contexts: How are They Different, if at All?” Small Business Economics 40: 761–83.10.1007/s11187-011-9399-3Search in Google Scholar
Lyons, Thomas S., and Jill R. Kickul. 2013. “Financing Social Enterprises.” Entrepreneurship Research Journal 5 (2): 83–85.Search in Google Scholar
Madill, Judith, Francois Brouard, and Tessa Hebb. 2010. “Canadian Social Enterprises: An Empirical Exploration of Social Transformation, Financial Self-Sufficiency, and Innovation.” Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing 22 (2): 125–51.10.1080/10495141003674044Search in Google Scholar
Maibom, Cæcilie, and Pernille Smith. 2016. “Symbiosis across Institutional Logics in a Social Enterprise.” Social Enterprise Journal 12 (3): 260–80.10.1108/SEJ-02-2016-0002Search in Google Scholar
Mair, Johanna, and Ignasi Martí. 2006. “Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Source of Explanation, Prediction, and Delight.” Journal of World Business 41 (1): 36–44.10.1016/j.jwb.2005.09.002Search in Google Scholar
Mair, Johanna, and Oliver Schoen. 2007. “Successful Social Entrepreneurial Business Models in the Context of Developing Economies: An Explorative Study.” International Journal of Emerging Markets 2 (1): 54–68.10.1108/17468800710718895Search in Google Scholar
Martin, Maximilian. 2015. “Building Impact Businesses through Hybrid Financing.” Entrepreneurship Research Journal 5 (2): 109–26.10.1515/erj-2015-0005Search in Google Scholar
Mason, Chris, and Bob Doherty. 2016. “A Fair Trade-Off? Paradoxes in the Governance of Fair-Trade Social Enterprises.” Journal of Business Ethics 136 (3): 451–69.10.1007/s10551-014-2511-2Search in Google Scholar
Mason, Chris, James Kirkbride, and David Bryde. 2007. “From Stakeholders to Institutions: The Changing Face of Social Enterprise Governance Theory.” Management Decision 45 (2): 284–301.10.1108/00251740710727296Search in Google Scholar
Minkoff, Debra C. 2002. “The Emergence of Hybrid Organizational Forms: Combining Identity-Based Service Provision and Political Action.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 31: 377–401.10.1177/0899764002313004Search in Google Scholar
Nega, Berhanu, and Geoffrey Schneider. 2014. “Social Entrepreneurship, Microfinance, and Economic Development in Africa.” Journal of Economic Issues 48 (2): 367–76.10.2753/JEI0021-3624480210Search in Google Scholar
Nguyen, Linh, Betina Szkudlarek, and Richard G. Seymour. 2015. “Social Impact Measurement in Social Enterprises: An Interdependence Perspective.” Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 32: 224–37.10.1002/cjas.1359Search in Google Scholar
Nicholls, A. 2010. “The Legitimacy of Social Entrepreneurship: Reflexive Isomorphism in a Pre–Paradigmatic Field.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 34 (4): 611–633. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00397.x10.1057/9781137035301_11Search in Google Scholar
Omorede, Adesuwa. 2014. “Exploration of Motivation Drivers Towards Social Entrepreneurship.” Social Enterprise Journal 10 (3): 239–67.10.1108/SEJ-03-2013-0014Search in Google Scholar
Peredo, Ana María, and Murdith McLean. 2006. “Social Entrepreneurship: A Critical Review of the Concept.” Journal of World Business 41 (1): 56–65.10.1016/j.jwb.2005.10.007Search in Google Scholar
Ridley-Duff, Rory. 2008. “Social Enterprise as a Socially Rational Business.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research 14 (5): 291–312.10.1108/13552550810897669Search in Google Scholar
Ridley-Duff, Rory, and Michael Bull. 2011. Understanding Social Enterprise – Theory and Practice. London: Sage.Search in Google Scholar
Rivera-Santos, Miguel, Diane Holt, David Littlewood, and Ans Kolk. 2015. “Social Entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.” The Academy of Management Perspectives 29 (1): 72–91.10.5465/amp.2013.0128Search in Google Scholar
Seanor, Pam, Michael Bull, Sue Baines, and Martin Purcell. 2014. “Where Social Enterprise Practitioners Draw the Line: Towards an Understanding of Movement from Social Entrepreneurship as Boundary Work.” International Journal of Public Sector Management 27 (4): 353–68.10.1108/IJPSM-11-2012-0139Search in Google Scholar
Seanor, Pam, Michael Bull, Sue Baines, and Rory Ridley-Duff. 2013. “Narratives of Transition from Social to Enterprise: You Can’t Get There from Here!.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research 19 (3): 324–43.10.1108/13552551311330200Search in Google Scholar
Sekaran, Uma, and Roger Bougie. 2013. Research Methods for Business. West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.Search in Google Scholar
Sepulveda, Leandro. 2015. “Social Enterprise - A New Phenomenon in the Field of Economic and Social Welfare?” Social Policy and Administration 49 (7): 842–61.10.1111/spol.12106Search in Google Scholar
Shaw, Eleanor, and Sara Carter. 2007. “Social Entrepreneurship.” Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 14 (3): 418–34.10.1108/14626000710773529Search in Google Scholar
Short, Jeremy C., Todd W. Moss, and G. T. Lumpkin. 2009. “Research in Social Entrepreneurship: Past Contributions and Future Opportunities.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal 3: 161–94.10.1002/sej.69Search in Google Scholar
Sunley, Peter, and Stephen Pinch. 2012. “Financing Social Enterprise: Social Bricolage or Evolutionary Entrepreneurialism?” Social Enterprise Journal 8 (2): 108–22.10.1108/17508611211252837Search in Google Scholar
Teasdale, Simon. 2010. “Explaining the Multifaceted Nature of Social Enterprise: Impression Management as (Social) Entrepreneurial Behaviour.” Voluntary Sector Review 1: 271–92.10.1332/204080510X538257Search in Google Scholar
Teasdale, Simon. 2011. “What’s in a Name? The Construction of Social Enterprise, Making Sense of Social Enterprise Discourses.” Public Policy and Administration 27 (2): 99–199.10.1177/0952076711401466Search in Google Scholar
Thompson, John, and Bob Doherty. 2006. “The Diverse World of Social Enterprise: A Collection of Social Enterprise Stories.” International Journal of Social Economics 33 (5/6): 399–410.10.1108/03068290610660643Search in Google Scholar
VanSandt, Craig V., Mukesh Sud, and Christopher Marme. 2009. “Enabling the Original Intent: Catalysts for Social Entrepreneurship.” Journal of Business Ethics 3 (3): 419–28.10.1007/s10551-010-0419-zSearch in Google Scholar
Weerawardena, Jay, and Gillian Sullivan Mort. 2006. “Investigating Social Entrepreneurship: A Multidimensional Model.” Journal of World Business 41 (1): 21–35.10.1016/j.jwb.2005.09.001Search in Google Scholar
Wilson, Fiona, and James E. Post. 2013. “Business Models for People, Planet (& Profits): Exploring the Phenomena of Social Business, a Market-Based Approach to Social Value Creation.” Small Business Economics 40: 715–37.10.1007/s11187-011-9401-0Search in Google Scholar
The World Bank. 2018. Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs. Regional Profile of Arab World. Washington, DC, USA: The World Bank Group.Search in Google Scholar
Yin, R. 1999. “Enhancing the Quality of Case Studies in Health Services Research.” Health Services Research 34 (5): 1209.Search in Google Scholar
Zahra, Shaker A., Eric Gedajlovic, Donald O. Neubaum, and Joel M. Shulman. 2009. “A Typology of Social Entrepreneurs: Motives, Search Processes and Ethical Challenges.” Journal of Business Venturing 24: 519–32.10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.04.007Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston