Despite the growing interest in social businesses, knowledge about and theorization of how these businesses change social and institutional conditions in emerging economies is scarce. This research investigates how an innovative social business model acts on institutional voids and creates social value for deprived communities. Building on insights from the literature and a longitudinal case study of a local, grassroots social business venture operating in Brazilian slums and shantytowns (favelas), we uncover and theorize eight mechanisms by which an innovative social business model brings about institutional change and creates social value. These mechanisms are: orchestrating local business networks, developing local business networks, upgrading and building cognitive capacity, legitimizing, assigning multiple roles, empowering, building a positive territorial identity (territorial de-stigmatization), and boundary spanning. Our findings have important implications for social entrepreneurs and organizations supporting social business ventures in transforming economies.

Name generators (NGs) and position generators (PGs) have been used to measure resources embedded in personal relationships, namely social support and social capital, respectively. Comparisons of these measures adopted NGs that only elicit a small number of alters (max. 5). In this paper we explore whether the measurement of social capital with NGs eliciting larger personal networks (say 15 to 20 alters) gives more comparable results to the PG in terms of occupational prestige. To address this issue, we designed a personal network questionnaire that combined a multiple name generator (MNG) and a PG and enquired about alter characteristics and alter-alter ties for the two sets of nominations simultaneously, allowing their integrated analysis. The questionnaire was implemented in the software EgoNet to collect data from social/environmental entrepreneurs in Spain (N = 30) and Mexico (N = 30. The analysis shows that the two approaches capture mostly non-overlapping sets of personal network members, suggesting that the PG measured in this case available, but not accessed social capital. Remarkably the NG led to a higher average prestige for this occupational group than the PG, but also a lower heterogeneity in prestige. The consequences of using one or another approach and their interpretations are discussed.

Social enterprises implement business-like approaches to address social problems. Scale-up of these enterprises beyond one geographical context can extend their impact to better match the scope of problems being addressed. Unfortunately, many social enterprises start but relatively few expand to new contexts, making scale-up one of the most important but least understood outcomes of social entrepreneurship. We explore this outcome empirically, extending existing research that is predominantly conceptual. The study adopts a multicase study research design. A dynamic capabilities framework reveals how resources are amassed and configured for expansion, a process that can be more difficult for social compared to commercial enterprises. Findings suggest scale-up may be a second act of social entrepreneurship because dissimilarities between initial and scale-up contexts necessitate product modification, different partnerships, and idiosyncratic resource configurations. We thus call into question existing literature’s focus on standardization – generic resource configurations – for scaling-up social enterprises to new geographical contexts.

This paper explores the emancipatory impulse of Indigenous social innovation and social enterprise. Indigenous approaches to solving social disparities reflect a perpetual search for innovative ways to change the circumstances of Māori. Power is an understudied dimension of social innovation and social enterprise. This paper explores the power dynamics that structure the disadvantage and marginalisation that cause populations to be underserved by markets and that limit their access to resources. We highlight that it is not power per se that enables social change: rather, it is power shifts. Through a single, richly contextualised case study of a well-known Māori social innovator, Dr Lance O’Sullivan, we reveal and illustrate the nuances of Indigenous entrepreneurship in the Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand. The case epitomises the transformative impact a social entrepreneur can have on the provision of healthcare amid market and policy failures.

Sharon Winsor was not intent on becoming one of Australia’s leading female Indigenous entrepreneurs, it was rather unexpected. In seeking to escape from an abusive relationship and provide for her family, she turned to her knowledge of native foods and love of ‘wild harvesting’ from her childhood, to develop a thriving business. Her traditional knowledge of harvesting native foods has now led to the creation of products such as lemon myrtle sweet chilli sauce, Davidson plum syrup and cosmetics using ingredients such as Kakadu plum, emu oil, lemon myrtle and wild berry. Sharon now finds herself in a position where increased opportunities for international expansion are demanding increased volume and scale from her rural operations, where she works with Indigenous communities. She faces three key challenges about the future of Indigiearth:

1. 1. How can Indigiearth achieve scale while maintaining profitability and social mission?

2. 2. How can Indigiearth protect its competitive advantage in the face of increased local agricultural competition, as Indigenous crops increase in value?

3. 3. How can traditional knowledge be both shared and protected for community development (jobs and wealth creation) and for future generations?

The New Year is close and Sharon already has received large orders coming in from Europe and there is much interest from China and Japan. These decisions will determine how Indigiearth is structured, with whom it needs to partner to develop the Indigenous food industry, and how it will need to work with stakeholders on the issue of traditional knowledge while meeting the growing needs of the company. Sharon has a passion for her native products and wants to preserve the knowledge and respect that goes into her products – the dilemmas she is facing are putting her under immense pressure. She may choose to expand while maintaining the integrity of her business – but how can this be done?

An increasing body of research has applied an institutional perspective to understand actors’ responses to conflicting institutional logics and the creation process of new organizational forms. Although China provides a natural, real-time laboratory to study this topic, scant empirical research has been done. Moreover, we find it is insufficient to apply current frameworks, which have been mainly driven by studies conducted in Western contexts, to study actors’ responses to institutional multiplicity in China, especially in its emerging non-profit sector. This article fills research gaps by providing an in-depth case analysis of the creation and legitimation process of the One Foundation – the first independent charity foundation established by civic individuals in China. Our study shows that the coexisting and competing relationship among state, civil society, social mission, and market logics provides impetus for organizational change and innovation. This article theorizes a temporal model by showing that actors seek provisional solutions in different organizational stages and gradually develop capabilities to progress institutional work from individual to organizational and to societal level to achieve their goals. By showing how a charity foundation plays a role as a change agent, this article also sheds light on the condition and process that drive innovation in China's non-profit sector.

This introduction to the special issue of the Journal of Management & Organization on social responsibility, philanthropy and entrepreneurship in the sport industry frames the key issues sport businesses, corporate partners, and related nonprofit organizations grapple with to ensure that both the organizations and the social causes which are being addressed benefit in some way. The importance of social responsibility is first examined in the context of corporations and sports. The increasing importance of social issues to sport-related industries and the role of strategic philanthropy is discussed. Next, the connection between social responsibility and philanthropic endeavors is addressed in terms of social entrepreneurship. Finally, the article concludes by highlighting the increased significance of sport in society and how the articles in this special issue contribute to a better understanding of the role of social responsibility, philanthropy and entrepreneurship in sport.

Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in local development in emerging economies, but scholars have paid little attention to this emerging phenomenon. Under the theory of moral sentiments, we posit that some entrepreneurs are altruistically motivated to promote a morally effective economic system by engaging in social entrepreneurial activities. Focusing on China's Guangcai (Glorious) Program, a social entrepreneurship program initiated by China's private entrepreneurs to combat poverty and contribute to regional development, we find that private entrepreneurs are motivated to participate in such programs if they have more past distressing experiences, including limited educational opportunities, unemployment experience, rural poverty experience, and startup location hardship. Their perceived social status further strengthens these relationships. Our study contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by offering a moral sentiment perspective that explains why some entrepreneurs voluntarily join a social entrepreneurship program to mitigate poverty in society.

This article1 analyses whether and how social innovations can be implemented in a Conservative/Bismarckian welfare regime and society such as Germany. It examines the transferability and the relevance of this discourse and practice, and argues that, due to existing institutional structures and cultures, innovation by public sector intrapreneurship is more significant in Germany than through social entrepreneurship. The article challenges the assumption that social innovation emerges from entrepreneurship, and questions the level of attention and importance attached to this development