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To investigate the higher‐level skills needs and learning provisions for small medium social enterprises (SMSEs) in Northwest England in order to support strategies for lifelong learning and organizational development.

The study involved the development of “Balance”, a tool based on an adapted form of Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard (1996) performance measurement and management tool, integrating the notion of incremental learning development, and utilizing Kolb and Fry’s (1975) organizational learning cycle. Discusses the findings of piloting the tool in 30 social enterprises to make a case for an alternative approach to business analysis, where a qualitative approach is put forward.

The results indicated that the Balance tool provided SMSEs with an easy to use diagnostic tool for collating managers’ subjective opinions in order to simplify the analysis process and provide a reference point for discussing management skills needs. Reveals that there is a spectrum of social enterprise with the “need” or “social” driven organization at one end and the more “enterprise” driven organization at the other. Concludes that the “social” led business tends to focus on an informal, organic organizational system, utilising a loose business framework purely as a means to meeting the social/environment need, while the “enterprise” led business focuses on a structured business organizational system, embracing business logic and businesslike methods and discourse to meet the social/environment/business need.

Builds on research which was published in the previous issue of this journal (“Business practices in social enterprises”, Social Enterprise Journal, Volume 2 Number 1 2006) and outlines the current understandings and shortcomings of SMSE management knowledge.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the apparent paradox that multinational firms may and sometimes do pursue social benefits as their main objective.

This paper explores the grey area that lays between some consolidated analytical concepts, namely: spillovers, corporate responsibility, social cooperation and non‐governmental organizations. It is in this grey area that “social multinationals” can be placed and examined. Scattered evidence is provided to illustrate the emergence of this relatively new phenomenon.

There are weak signals that the “social multinational” is a viable institutional innovation. The economic rationale is mainly represented by what could be defined in Smithian terms as the “selfless component of self‐interest”, combined with the ex ante and ex post advantages associated to multinationality. Institutional and technological transformations have created opportunities for the emergence of this phenomenon over the past three decades. However, there is a need for specifically designed policies to reinforce this relatively new trend in international business.

The paper proposes a new analytical category and draws insights on its potential implications for welfare, poverty reduction and economic development.

The aim of this article is to contribute to the field of social businesses, particularly considering the dimension of social innovation.

The authors adopted a qualitative approach, whose purpose is to gather in-depth insights into a problem to understand its contextual elements and interrelations. The authors used an exploratory descriptive design and a multiple case study, which allows the identification of similarities and differences in the research subjects. They developed a scale that enables the classification of the operation logic of the social businesses analyzed.

It became evident that social businesses present a few differences in their modus operandi: those based on a social logic are more concerned with the generation of socio-environmental value, however with small-scale innovation; in contrast, social business guided by a market logic do not intend to generate socio-environmental value in different dimensions and are more concerned with the wider range of their innovations.

This research analyzed social businesses from a founder and manager perspective and did not comprise all stakeholders. The purpose of this study was not to measure the effective impact generated by innovation, but to understand its potential to generate socio-environmental value.

The generation of socio-environmental value and the strategies to expand practices of social innovation are associated with the operation logic of social business.

The created scale allowed the classification of social businesses in terms of operation logic (greater emphasis on market or social aspects) and proposes a few dimensions to evaluate a socio-environmental innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of Wasta, a culturally based system of social networks of exchange among in-group members in the Arab world, as exemplified by three groups of Arabs in the Palestinian Authority, and then compares it to Guanxi (China), Sviazi (Russia) and Jaan–Pechaan (India). The use of social networks is a common business model around the world to accomplish business objectives and is especially relied upon in emerging economies where formal institutions are weak. It is important to understand the commonalities and differences in the use of reciprocity in various cultural contexts in order to conduct business effectively. The aim of the paper is to illustrate the structure of Wasta and how it is perceived and constructed among three Arab social groups, and then compare and contrast it with social business models in three other high context cultures.

Qualitative approach based on interviews to better understand the relationships involved.

The findings provide the foundation for a number of critical insights for non-Arab managers seeking to do business in the Arab world. For international managers to conduct business successfully, it is essential to understand how Wasta works, and establish relationships with members of influential social networks by building trust over time such that they create Wasta for themselves and indirectly for their firms. Using Wasta in the Arab world, as noted above, is similar to doing business successfully in other emerging economies such as using Sviazi in Russia (McCarthy and Puffer, 2008; Berger et al., 2017), Guanxi in China (Yen et al., 2011) and Jaan–Pechaan in India (Bhattacharjee and Zhang, 2011). The authors feel more confident in stating this view after comparing Wasta with these other three concepts, and noting that all four are built upon the same fundamental constructs.

The authors recognize that the study is limited in terms of the geographical sample since it does not include any non-Palestinians, although the managers the authors sampled came from various regions in the Palestinian authority. Additionally, Palestinian managers are highly educated and mobile, and can be found in many other Arab countries working in managerial positions (Zineldin, 2002), thus potentially broadening the generalizability of the findings. Nonetheless, the samples would be called ones of convenience rather than randomly drawn from the three groups, since the latter would be extremely difficult to execute not only in the Palestinian Authority but in most of the Arab world due to the culturally based reluctance to provide sensitive information to those outside one’s network. Despite the difficulties that might be involved in exploring such culturally sensitive issues as the authors did in this study, the benefits in knowledge gained can be of significant importance to the study of international business in emerging and transition economies.

Little research has focused on the use of Wasta in the Arab world, a gap which this paper addresses. The authors do so by analyzing the views of Wasta held by three important groups – leaders, business people and students. While each type of reciprocity has its own unique characteristics, the authors focus on three interrelated constructs that have been found to underlie the use of reciprocity in various cultures. In the Arab world, these are Hamola, which incorporates reciprocity; Somah, that incorporates trust; and Mojamala, which incorporates empathy through social business networks.

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how social entrepreneurs achieve the desired impact-based model of business.

Qualitative research design included semi-structured in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs of three Chilean Tourism B Corporations (B Corps), participant observation of the Latin American B Movement, and print, digital and social media clippings.

This research unearths the practices by which entrepreneurs implement their aspirations of balancing profit and social impact obligations within their business models.

Though an intentional sample is not representative in quantitative terms, the employed research design allowed the authors to deepen the understanding of the processes which are taking place in Chile, Latin America, and on the Global scale. The authors concluded that social benefit commitment guides innovation in business models of Chilean entrepreneurs seeking to have a broader positive impact on vulnerable communities and the society at large.

This research shows that traditional businesses have the possibility of hybridizing management, combining the necessary organization that defines its mission with social or environmental purposes. The latter is likely to open up new markets for traditional businesses.

Social entrepreneurship is the principal means for new generations of entrepreneurs to make changes in businesses and in vulnerable local communities through global aspirations. But the need for more open political discussion within the B Movement is clear, especially regarding the nexus between the “negative externalities” of the traditional economy and social or environmental problems which the B Corps intend to solve. Such debate would allow companies and the movement to more easily identify new courses of action.

This study gives account of regional nuances of social entrepreneurship and social innovation phenomena. In particular, there has been a surge of impact-oriented rather than profit-oriented innovation initiatives in neoliberal-oriented Latin American states, such as Chile. These initiatives offer us a wealth of empirical information about the development of alternative business models.

Despite its immense potentials as a sustainable and innovative means to solve specific social problems, the basic concept of the social business model (SBM) advanced by Professor Muhammad Yunus remains unclear to many. There exists no literature that objectively compares this model from empowerment and economic growth perspectives with other seemingly similar concepts, such as social enterprise, non-governmental organization (NGO) and corporate social responsibility. Although many NGOs have been showing increasing interest towards the adoption of the SBM to minimize social problems sustainably, lack of conceptual clarity of the model limits the scope of its adoption in addressing social issues. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study is based on a systematic search, analysis and review of literature. It has made use of narrative synthesis of relevant literature on a diverse range of socially oriented models, frameworks and interventions.

This study identified five key aspects of social business, namely: business’s mission and outcomes, characteristics, operation, resource utilization and environmental considerations. Based on these five key aspects one may like to infer that unlike other social interventions, the alignment of SBM is specific to empowerment of disadvantaged people leading to sustainable economic growth. Analyzing a range of social business interventions in a developing country, Bangladesh, through the lens five key aspects demonstrates that social business is the most efficient way to sustainably maximize the social benefits and minimize specific social issues poverty of the people affected.

This study discusses the scopes of adopting SBM for the socially responsible organizations for sustainable empowerment and economic growth in emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the business model of a successful social tourism business in Granada, Nicaragua. The study assesses how the business provides an avenue to combat the challenges that restrict certain stakeholders from participating in tourism. The case identifies specific mechanisms, such as investing in the local community’s education and favoring local vendors and merchants, as ways in which social tourism businesses can disseminate value among all stakeholders and create a more equitable form of tourism.

The case study method was chosen for collecting and analyzing data. Data include in-depth interviews with business founders, managers and employees, field observation notes, photographic documentation and additional written documents. Data were analyzed using content analysis.

The study found that the business was able to produce a high-quality tourism product that disseminated value among all stakeholders. The study also proved the value of the additional building blocks within the Business Model Canvas for Social Enterprise, and the clear distinction between “co-creators” and “beneficiaries.”

This study uses the Business Model Canvas for Social Enterprise, a model unverified since inception, to analyze a successful social tourism business. It confirms the usefulness of the additional building blocks within the model, and the additional delineations between “co-creators” and “beneficiaries.” Furthermore, the paper recommends these distinctions are extended to all blocks in the canvas, to illustrate the many ways a company can distribute value based on its business model.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theory and applications in social business and accountability.

The paper develops the theoretical arguments, shows the importance of non‐accounting measures, explores available non‐accounting measures and suggests BSC as an externally validated reporting tool.

There is a need to expand the accounting base to non‐financial measures; social business and social enterprises do not have externally validated performance reports and there is no benchmark data to compare performance.

This is a conceptual and theoretical study. It needs empirical validation.

Using the suggested measurement and reporting will make public accountability transparent and expand the accountant's social role. It will motivate teaching of social business in accounting.

The study supports social business as a legitimate entity; corporations engaged in social business will be more publicly responsible; the study will encourage investment in social business; small entrepreneurs from the bottom of the society will have an opportunity to participate in the economy; and the poor will participate in the economy, will expand the economy and contribute to social and economic development.

The paper includes guidelines for implementing the proposed BSC, performance measurements and reporting techniques.

This paper presents an overview of Latin American (LA) publications on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and closely related themes that appear in ISI Thompson Reuters Social Science Citation Index journals, in the period 2000-2017. The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first is to understand the institutional context in which this research is being produced, and to reflect on how it can be improved. The second is to map out key research strands in this literature, to discuss its achievements and limitations, and identify opportunities for future research.

A quantitative-qualitative systematic review was performed using a standard bibliometric approach. A total of 148 articles from 36 journals, indexed in the ISI Thompson Reuters Social Science Citation Index, were selected and analyzed. A systematic analysis was performed, based on a review protocol, which comprised following eight steps: research objectives, article search, articles selection, article identification, root themes coding, data coding, data coding validation and content analysis.

Research about CSR Latin America features a very low citation record. It is also very fragmented. Both of these characteristics reflect little conversation amongst scholars publishing on this topic in indexed venues. More generally, participation in these venues reflects the location of scholars working on this topic as peripheral actors in scholarly conversations. The study identifies many opportunities for future research that attend to key issues that are relevant for Latin America and that will stimulate a more dynamic conversation among scholars interested in the region.

First, this study is limited to articles on CSR research on LA published in ISI journals. It does not show the whole trend of other academic and managerial publications in the region. Second, although the articles selected were retrieved based on 17 search terms derived from the theoretical framework, the complexity of CSR-related themes and its evolution could have caused some terms, and therefore publications, to be left out.

Results provide scholars interested in the region with updated information about the state of research on the topic and about opportunities for future research. They also provide business schools in the region with a valuable input for a comprehensive reflection on research policy.

In the 30th anniversary of Academia (Revista Latinoamericana de Administración), this study offers recommendations on how research on CRS in Latin America could be made more visible and relevant.

This is the first bibliometric analysis of scholarly publications on CSR and related issues in Latin America. It is also unique in addressing institutional factors that may be conditioning intellectual production on the topic.

Este artículo presenta una descripción general de las publicaciones sobre América Latina (AL) acerca de la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) y temas estrechamente relacionados que aparecen en las revistas del Índice ISI Thompson Reuters de Ciencias Sociales, en el período 2000-2017. El propósito de este estudio es doble. El primero es comprender el contexto institucional en el que se está produciendo esta investigación, y reflexionar sobre cómo se puede mejorar dicho contexto. El segundo es trazar líneas de investigación clave en esta literatura, para discutir sus logros y limitaciones, e identificar oportunidades para futuras investigaciones.

Se realizó una revisión sistemática cualitativa-cuantitativa utilizando un enfoque bibliométrico estándar. Se seleccionaron y analizaron un total de 148 artículos de 36 revistas indexadas en el Índice de citas de Ciencias Sociales de ISI Thompson Reuters. Se realizó un análisis sistemático, basado en un protocolo de revisión que comprendía ocho pasos: objetivos de la investigación, búsqueda de artículos, selección de artículos, identificación de artículos, codificación de temas raíz, codificación de datos, validación de codificación de datos y análisis de contenido.

Las publicaciones sobre RSE en AL presentan un registro de citas muy bajo, además de muy fragmentado. Ambas características reflejan poca conversación entre los académicos que publican sobre este tema en revistas indexadas. En términos más generales, la participación en estas publicaciones refleja la ubicación de los académicos que trabajan en este tema como actores periféricos en las conversaciones académicas. El estudio identifica muchas oportunidades para futuras investigaciones que atienden temas clave que son relevantes para AL y que estimularán una conversación más dinámica entre los académicos interesados en la región.

En primer lugar, este estudio se limita a artículos sobre investigación de RSE en AL publicados en revistas ISI. No muestra la tendencia general de otro tipo de publicaciones académicas y gerenciales sobre la región. En segundo lugar, aunque la búsqueda en esta investigación se hizo con base en 17 términos derivados del marco teórico, la complejidad de los temas relacionados con la RSE y su evolución podrían haber ocasionado que algunos términos, y por lo tanto publicaciones, hayan quedado fuera del análisis.

Los resultados proporcionan a los estudiosos interesados en la región información actualizada sobre el estado de la investigación sobre el tema y sobre las oportunidades para investigaciones futuras. También le ofrecen a las escuelas de negocios de la región un aporte valioso para una reflexión integral sobre la política de investigación.

En el 30 aniversario de Academia (Revista Latinoamericana de Administración), este estudio ofrece recomendaciones sobre cómo la investigación sobre RSE en AL podría hacerse más visible y relevante.

Este es el primer análisis bibliométrico de publicaciones académicas sobre RSE y temas relacionados en AL. También es único al abordar los factores institucionales que pueden condicionar la producción intelectual sobre el tema.

The use of entrepreneurship to deliver profound social impact is a much-needed but poorly understood concept. While social enterprises are generally well understood, there is a considerable need to have a more common approach to measuring the different ways they create social value for us as well as to reduce the difficulties of starting and growing them in the difficult conditions of developing countries. In the northeast of Nigeria, for example, the mammoth challenge of rebuilding communities in an unfavorable entrepreneurship environment makes the need for a solution even more urgent. This case study illustrates a model of promoting entrepreneurship that advances the conditions of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in local communities using a configuration of the key theories of social impact entrepreneurship (variants of entrepreneurship with blended value or mission orientation, including social entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship). The extent to which ventures can adjust and improve the extent of their contributions to the SDGs are shown using examples of three entrepreneurs at different stages of growth. From this case study, students will be able to understand how entrepreneurs can identify and exploit social impact opportunities in the venture’s business model, within the network of primary stakeholders as well as in the wider institutional environment with the support of Impact+, a simple impact measurement praxis.

The case study envisions training students how to hardwire social impact focus in the venture’s business model (social entrepreneurship), how to run ventures with minimal harm to the environment and greatest benefit to stakeholders (sustainable entrepreneurship) and how to contribute to improving the institutional environment for social purpose entrepreneurship (institutional entrepreneurship).

At the end of learning this case study, students should be able to: 1. discover an effective model for a startup social venture; 2. explore options for managing a venture sustainably and helping stakeholders out of poverty; and 3. identify ways to contribute to improving the institutional environment for social impact entrepreneurs.

For students, this case will help in educating them on a pragmatic approach to designing social impact ventures – one that calibrates where they are on well-differentiated scales.

For business schools, entrepreneurial development institutions and policymakers, this case study can help them learn how to target entrepreneurial development for specific development outcomes.

The case study is preferably for early-stage postgraduate students (MSc or MBA).

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.