Social Enterprises: An Organizational Perspective

269 Pages·2012·4.506 MB·English

by  Benjamin Gidron, Yeheskel Hasenfeld (eds.)

Social Enterprises
Also by Benjamin Gidron

POLICY INITIATIVES TOWARDS THE THIRD SECTOR IN INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVE (edited with M. Bar-Almog)
THE THIRD SECTOR IN ISRAEL: Between Civil Society and the Welfare State
(edited with M. Bar and H. Katz)

MOBILIZING FOR PEACE: Peace/Conflict Resolution Organizations in South Africa,
Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine (edited with S. Katz and Y. Hasenfeld)
SELF-HELP AND MUTUAL AID GROUPS: International and Multicultural Perspectives
(edited with F. Lavoie and T. Borkman)

GOVERNMENT AND THE THIRD SECTOR: Emerging Relationships in Welfare States
(edited with R. Kramer and L. Salamon)
Also by Yekeshel Hasenfeld
WE THE POOR PEOPLE (with J. Handler)
BLAME WELFARE, IGNORE POVERTY AND INEQUALITY (with J. Handler)

HUMAN SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS AS COMPLEX ORGANIZATIONS
Social Enterprises
An Organizational Perspective
Edited by
Benjamin Gidron
Israeli Social Enterprise Research Center,
Beit Berl Academic College, Israel
and
Yeheskel Hasenfeld
UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, USA
Selection and editorial content © Benjamin Gidron and
Yeheskel Hasenfeld 2012
Foreword © Steven Rathgeb Smith 2012
Individual chapters © the contributors 2012
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978-1-349-34757-5 ISBN 978-1-137-03530-1(eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137035301
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Foreword by Steven Rathgeb Smith ix
Acknowledgments xiv
Notes on Contributors xv
List of Abbreviations xx
Introduction 1
Benjamin Gidron and Yeheskel Hasenfeld
Part I Theoretical Approaches
1 The State of Theory and Research on Social Enterprises 19
Dennis R. Young
2 Social Enterprises and Social Categories 47
Joseph Galaskiewicz and Sondra N. Barringer
3 Conceptions of Social Enterprise in Europe: A Comparative
Perspective with the United States 71
Jacques Defourny and Marthe Nyssens
4 Defining Social Enterprise across Different Contexts:
A Conceptual Framework Based on Institutional Factors 91
Janelle A. Kerlin
Part II Empirical Studies
5 Managing Conflicting Institutional Logics: Social Service
versus Market 121
Eve Garrow and Yeheskel Hasenfeld
6 The Phenomenon of Social Businesses: Some Insights
from Israel 144
Benjamin Gidron and Inbal Abbou
v
vi Contents
7 S ocial Enterprise in Mixed-Form Fields: Challenges
and Prospects 162
Paul-Brian McInerney
8 C hasing the Double-Bottom Line: Fair Trade and the
Elusive Win–win 1 85
Curtis Child
9 M ission Control: Examining the Institutionalization of
New Legal Forms of Social Enterprise in Different
Strategic Action Fields 1 98
Kate Cooney
10 P ostscript: The Legitimacy of Social Entrepreneurship:
Reflexive Isomorphism in a Pre-paradigmatic Field 2 22
Alex Nicholls
Index 249
Figures
1.1 The topography of social enterprise 25
2.1 Categories, traits, performance measures
and organizational forms 51
2.2 T he niche defines the criteria for accountability
and authenticity 54
3.1 Social enterprises at the crossroads of the cooperative
and nonprofit sectors 80
4.1 Macro-institutional processes and causal paths for
models of social enterprise 95
5.1 Perceived ability of clients 124
5.2 Causal model 127
8.1 I deal-typical outcomes for social enterprise decisions 1 88
vii
Tables
2.1 Contradictory institutional logics 56
4.1 Power explanation of institutional reproduction 9 4
4.2 T he Global Competitiveness Report’s criteria for
stages of economic development 9 7
4.3 Salamon and Sokolowski’s models of civil society
sector structure 1 00
4.4 Models of social enterprise 1 00
4.5 Socioeconomic data for five countries 1 04
4.6 Social enterprise characteristics for five countries 1 06
5.1 Client commodification 1 22
9.1 Comparison of CICs, B Corporations and L3Cs 2 07
10.1 Paradigm-building discourses in social entrepreneurship 2 34
10.2 Reflexive isomorphism in social entrepreneurship 2 38

viii
Foreword
In recent years, social enterprises have received widespread attention as
more effective alternatives to traditional public and nonprofit organizations
in addressing social problems. In general, social enterprises are organiza-
tions which combine a market-orientation with a social mission. Within
this broad organizing concept, a wide variety of organizations have been
classified as social enterprises: nonprofit organizations reliant on earned
income and fees; for-profit organizations with a social mission; hybrid
organizational models that include for-profit and nonprofit components
including nonprofits with for-profit subsidiaries; and new legal entities
such as the community interest company (CIC) and the low profit limited
liability company (L3C) which is a social mission organization that can
obtain funds from investors.
Government and foundations have devoted extensive resources to support
the start-up and growth of social enterprises. The Obama administration
has supported numerous social enterprises through the Social Innovation
Fund and many leading philanthropic funders including the Skoll World
Forum and Roberts Enterprise Development Foundation (REDF), the
Acumen Fund and the Omidyar Network place social enterprises at the
center of their funding priorities and programs. Further, social enterprises
have been promoted by national and international nonprofits committed
to more entrepreneurial approaches to solving social problems including
Community Wealth Ventures, Ashoka, Social Venture Partners and Venture
Philanthropy Partners.
The growth of social enterprises reflects several very important trends
in organized philanthropy and public policy. First, the venture philan-
thropy movement has brought business models from the for-profit sector
to nonprofit organizations including greater attention to outcomes, using
the discipline of the market to enhance performance and encouraging more
entrepreneurial behavior by nonprofit leaders (Letts et al., 1999; Morino,
2010). Many younger philanthropists from the high-tech world have been
especially attracted to this venture philanthropy approach. Second, the
growth of the nonprofit sector in the US and abroad creates more compe-
tition among nonprofits and substantial pressure of revenues, especially
given the financial crisis. Consequently, social enterprises can be viewed
as an adaptive response to a rapidly changing fiscal and political environ-
ment for nonprofits. Third, a broad rethinking of social policy has occurred
throughout the world which has entailed, in part, a new emphasis on
individual responsibility and workforce participation as evident in public
ix