Growing up from In-Betweeners

Alternatives to Hybridity in Social Entrepreneurship Research

authored by

Othmar Manfred Lehner, Christiana Weber

Abstract

Social ventures (SVs) based on social entrepreneurship are often labeled in the literature as hybrids because of their inherent different institutional logics between social and commercial thinking. As one potential consequence, it is further argued that these not-yet institutionalized organizational forms lack legitimacy. In this conceptual paper, we articulate our concerns with this trend in social entrepreneurship research. We propose configuration theory as an alternative approach to move forward and argue that from a configurational lens such SVs can be identified as distinct, yet coherent configurations driven by their intrinsic and idiosyncratic value bundles and related value creation goals. We demonstrate how this helps overcome the raised concerns and contribute to the literature on social entrepreneurship and configuration theory.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Strategic Management and Organisation

External Organisation(s)

University of Oxford
Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences

Type

Article

Journal

Entrepreneurship Research Journal

Volume

10

No. of pages

13

ISSN

2194-6175

Publication date

07.2020

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Business and International Management, Strategy and Management, Management of Technology and Innovation

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2018-0099 (Access: Closed)