Once their initiatives have been implemented locally, many social enterprises seek to maximize their impact and scale by expanding the range of people affected by their actions, diversifying their clientele and services, or by replicating their models in other territories (Gheerbrant & Pache, 2014). However, while there is a thriving literature on the growth and scaling-up of traditional private sector firms, the results remain difficult to transfer to social economy enterprises. This might be partly explained by the fact that their choice of scaling-up is not supported only on issues of financial profitability, but above all on the desire to replicate positive social impacts on a larger scale (Bradach, 2003). This tension between preserving social mission and economic viability makes decision-making more complex for these organizations and requires attention to its own strategies.
Among the different types of scaling-up strategies specific to social economy enterprises (AVISE, 2014; Berelowitz, Richardson, & Towner, 2013; Desforges, 1980), our attention is focused on social franchising. This strategy can be defined as a way for the initial social enterprise (franchisor) to develop antennas in new territories (franchisees). While some authors rely on the commercial franchise model as a starting point for defining and comparing it to social franchise (Berelowitz, 2012; European Social Franchising Network, 2016), we ask oureselves if that analysis is pertinent to social enterprises giving their collective format, values and democratic governance.
For the sake of our presentation, we will address this question by presentating a partnership reseach project conducted in collaboration with a liaison and knowledge transfer organization called Territoires Innovants en Économie Sociale et Solidarity (TIESS). In this project we seek to better understand the decisive conditions to maximize the social impact of social enterprises via a “social franchise” model that is yet to be define in the Quebec, Canada context. We monitored discussions during multiple community of practice sessions gathering at least six social enterprises. Some of them are at the beginning of their reflection while others already have more experiences in replicating their model. We also started to observe and follow rigorously another social enterprise engaged in the implementation process of a so called social franchise with the support of the TIESS.
Our presentation will first focus on the motivations that drives social enterprises to maximize their social impact. We will continue by presenting the different strategies allowing social enterprises to scale-up and maximize their impact depending on their motivations and the characteristics of the initiative they want to replicate. We will then define what is generally recognize as a social franchise and briefly compare it with its commercial counterpart. Based on our results the tensions and paradoxes created by the use of the word franchise itself for these organizations will be discussed. Finally, we will address the interorganizational issues of control, autonomy, democratic governance and power we forsee between the franchisor and the franchisee.
References
AVISE (2014). Stratégies pour changer d’échelle. France : AVISE. Online http://www.avise.org/sites/def...
Berelowitz, D. (2012). Social Franchising: Innovation and the Power of Old Ideas. London, UK: The Clore Social Leadership Programme, the International Centre for Social Franchising and Social Enterprise UK. Online http://www.the-icsf.org/wp-con...
Berelowitz, D., Richardson, M. & Towner, M. (2013). Realising the Potential of Social Replication, London, UK: The International Centre for Social Franchising. Online http://www.socialimpactconsult...
Bradach, J. (2003). Going to Scale, Standford : Stanford Social Innovation Review. Online http://ssir.org/articles/entry...
Desforges (1980). Stratégies et développement des cooperatives. Montréal : Éditions du Jour.
European Social Franchising Network (2016) What is social franchising. Online http://www.socialfranchising.c...
Gheerbrant, A. K., & Pache, A.-C. (2014). Changer d’échelle : manuel pour maximiser l’impact des entreprises sociales. France : ESSEC Publishing. Online https://docs.google.com/a/esse...
6. Institutionalization, scaling up and public policies
