Ambivalence and ambiguity in social enterprise: narratives about values in reconciling purpose and practices.

Diochon, Monica; Anderson, Alistair R.

Abstract

Social enterprises are unusual change organizations; typically their purpose is to bring about change to improve social well-being. Yet they do so in unusual ways. Traditional entrepreneurs generate social value as a by-product of economic value; whereas for social entrepreneurs the reverse is true. This brings about an ambiguity in integrating business and social well being, most manifest in identity and in managing the enterprise. Moreover, the values which drive social enterprise are different. Consequently, we examine how values shape practices and how they give direction and purpose to what social enterprises do and how this shapes identity over time. Using the social organisation as the unit of analysis, we collected the narratives about tensions and how these were reconciled. We contribute by improving our understanding of social enterprise by showing how values are worked, used and deployed to give direction in reconciling ambiguity. Moreover, these ambiguities provide a unique identity and purpose for social enterprise.

Citation

DIOCHON, M. and ANDERSON, A. R. 2011. Ambivalence and ambiguity in social enterprise: narratives about values in reconciling purpose and practices. International entrepreneurship and management journal [online], 7(1), pages 93-109. Available from:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-010-0161-0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 28, 2010
• Online Publication Date: Jul 28, 2010
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2011
• Deposit Date: May 5, 2011
• Publicly Available Date: May 5, 2011
• Journal: International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
• Print ISSN: 1554-7191
• Electronic ISSN: 1555-1938
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 93-109
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-010-0161-0
• Keywords: Social enterprise; Narratives; Values; Purpose; Practices
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/613