Factors that inhibit partnering for social start‐up enterprises

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the inhibiting factors of partnership creation between social entrepreneurs in the business, government, public and non‐profit sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examines four cases of social entrepreneurship in the start‐up phase. Each case is studied in real time, for a period of two years.

Findings

The empirical research reveals that partnership creation for social enterprises between a social enterprise and organizations in various sectors is inhibited by conflicting interests and diverging speed of on one hand and by the conflicts that originate from the opportunity‐seeking behavior of the social entrepreneur and the risk avoiding behavior of the organizations. While the social start‐ups that managed to neutralize such inhibitors succeeded, the start‐up enterprises that did not manage to do so failed.

Originality/value

While, there is a sound body of knowledge of the factors that inhibit the more traditional single and cross‐sector partnerships, relatively little is known about the factors that inhibit the partnerships between social enterprises and organizations in the business, public, government, and non‐profit sectors in society.

Citation

Maase, S.J.F.M. and Bossink, B.A.G. (2010), "Factors that inhibit partnering for social start‐up enterprises", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 68-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506201011029519