On the road to social enterprise sustainability: A value co-creation pathway

On the road to social enterprise sustainability: A value co-creation pathway. EMES 2016 - Social innovation and social entrepreneurship. Abstract. Social enterprises are value based (Ridley-Duff 2008) hybrid organisations... [ view full abstract ]

On the road to social enterprise sustainability: A value co-creation pathway.

EMES 2016 - Social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

Abstract.
Social enterprises are value based (Ridley-Duff 2008) hybrid organisations that employ traditional business methods to deliver social outcomes (Doherty et al. 2014). Recognised for the provision of socio-economic benefit to society (Borzaga and Tortia 2009) they are multi-stakeholder organisations (Meyskens et al 2010) embedded in their communities (Birch and Whittam 2006). Thus, governments have viewed these ventures as an appealing model for service delivery, showing interest in developing the domain despite public funding for the sector progressively decreasing (Blundel and Lyon 2015).
Hence the importance of commercial sustainability for these enterprises (Chell 2007; Jenner 2016). However, this can be problematic. Their dual socio-economic focus may cause mission–drift leading to managerial and stakeholder tension (Doherty et al. 2014) with the potential for organisational failure (Bruneel et al 2016). This is important as collaborative community relationships are a factor in the success of social ventures (Jenner and Oprescu 2016). Moreover, these organisations often lack commercial and managerial skills (Doherty et al. 2014; Sunley and Pinch 2012). This includes marketing capabilities, an area that remains under researched despite its potential to influence social enterprise success, particularly from a relational marketing perspective (Powell and Osborne 2015). Accordingly, this research seeks to explore the application of marketing concepts to build longevity in social enterprise agendas.
Anchored in services marketing, value co-creation represents the notion of crafting value together with (rather than to) stakeholders. Moving beyond a sole focus on economic exchange, value co-creation encourages the exchange of operant resources (e.g. knowledge, skills and relationships) to achieve mutual stakeholder benefit (Vargo and Lusch 2004, 2008). Accordingly, it offers a marketing logic focused on integrity and trust amongst stakeholders (Abela and Murphy 2008), seemingly complementary to the ethos of social enterprises. In fact, while value co-creation research is common in commercial contexts, recent calls have been made regarding its applicability in non-commercial and social enterprise settings (McColl-Kennedy et al. 2015; Laud et al. 2015). Thus, drawing from the value co-creation research and utilising case study analysis, this project explores the potential of value co-creation as an avenue for social enterprises to more effectively align the achievement of social goals with organisational sustainability.
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