A growing component of the literature and development policies are now focused on social enterprise growth models. Their aim is to support a wider and more consistent development of this entrepreneurial form, which has so far been confined to given market niches, specific social domains, and limited territorial contexts (European Commission, 2016). Various approaches and procedures have been elaborated to unlock the potential of social enterprises. Drawing on the typical euristic of mainstream innovation, the growth strategies such approaches recommend are aimed to both build on executing abilities and scale social impact (OECD, 2016). These models have fully entered the development programmes that have been designed for restructuring existing social enterprises and supporting the development of new social start-ups (Weber, Kröger, Lambrich, 2012). They are nevertheless a key reference for impact investments focused on the social domain.
This paper aims at critically analysing the existing scaling models of social enterprises with a view to investigating the key components and cultural backgrounds that have contributed to shaping them (Heinecke, Mayer, 2012). Add to this, the paper will shed light on the endogenous and exogenous factors that had a role in supporting the scaling of social enterprise in the tourism industry. The rationale for selecting this specific domain is that it allows for the identification of innovative case studies of social enterprises that have adopted effective scaling strategies. At least two case studies will be selected with a view to investigating the scaling tools adopted by social enterprises vis-à-vis scaling tools employed by traditional entrepreneurs operating in the touristic domain, who recognize the increasing role of the social dimension of tourism in their value chain.
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6. Institutionalization, scaling up and public policies
