< Back to previous page
Project
If not for profit, for What? And How? Building interdisciplinary and integrated knowledge on social entrepreneurship and social enterprise (SOCENT) (DWTC287)
This project focuses on the theoretical study of social enterprises, defined as organizations which combine an entrepreneurial dynamics to provide services or goods with the primacy of their social aims.
The project aims to capture and theorize the specific features of social enterprises, at the crossroads between market, state and civil society. Despite growing research in this field, much remains to be investigated and theorized concerning why and how entrepreneurs identify opportunities for social innovation and exploit them through a not-for-profit scheme (If not for profit, for what?). Moreover, several research gaps can be identified as to how social enterprises are managed and how their models are diffused (how?).
The emergence of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship brings basic research questions which this project aims to investigate
- Through better understanding the motivations and rationale behind the creation of social enterprises and their support by for-profit and public actors
- Through putting forth the business models and diffusion strategies that enable social enterprises to fulfill their roles successfully
Beyond contributions to basic research on social enterprises as specific types of organizations, this project also offers the potential of enriching existing literatures on nonprofit organizations and co-operatives (two major sub-types of social enterprise) as well as more general theoretical frameworks on organizations and on entrepreneurship. Indeed, as social enterprise represents a particularly complex and hybrid organizational model combining private (or quasi-private) property, economic activity and social aims, it challenges some central assumptions in economics and management. Through building in-depth and interdisciplinary knowledge on social enterprise and through mobilizing and questioning in a joint effort a range of theoretical frameworks used by the partners (mainly micro-economics, organizational sociology, entrepreneurship and organizational psychology), the proposal aims to enrich extant paradigms on such central concepts as the firm (organizational level) and the entrepreneurial process (identification of opportunities and value creation). Documenting the role and functioning of social enterprises may indeed contribute to the broader research on "organizational diversity" in our economies.
The project aims to capture and theorize the specific features of social enterprises, at the crossroads between market, state and civil society. Despite growing research in this field, much remains to be investigated and theorized concerning why and how entrepreneurs identify opportunities for social innovation and exploit them through a not-for-profit scheme (If not for profit, for what?). Moreover, several research gaps can be identified as to how social enterprises are managed and how their models are diffused (how?).
The emergence of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship brings basic research questions which this project aims to investigate
- Through better understanding the motivations and rationale behind the creation of social enterprises and their support by for-profit and public actors
- Through putting forth the business models and diffusion strategies that enable social enterprises to fulfill their roles successfully
Beyond contributions to basic research on social enterprises as specific types of organizations, this project also offers the potential of enriching existing literatures on nonprofit organizations and co-operatives (two major sub-types of social enterprise) as well as more general theoretical frameworks on organizations and on entrepreneurship. Indeed, as social enterprise represents a particularly complex and hybrid organizational model combining private (or quasi-private) property, economic activity and social aims, it challenges some central assumptions in economics and management. Through building in-depth and interdisciplinary knowledge on social enterprise and through mobilizing and questioning in a joint effort a range of theoretical frameworks used by the partners (mainly micro-economics, organizational sociology, entrepreneurship and organizational psychology), the proposal aims to enrich extant paradigms on such central concepts as the firm (organizational level) and the entrepreneurial process (identification of opportunities and value creation). Documenting the role and functioning of social enterprises may indeed contribute to the broader research on "organizational diversity" in our economies.
Date:1 Apr 2012 → 31 Mar 2017
Keywords:Applied economics
Disciplines:Applied economics