Social enterprises are organizations that address pressing social and environmental challenges—such as poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation—through market-based activities. With over ten million social enterprises globally generating around $2 trillion in annual revenue, social entrepreneurship is an established global phenomenon. While existing research has predominantly focused on the internal processes of these ventures, their social outcomes are often implied rather than explicitly studied, resulting in a limited understanding of their real-world impact. 

In our study published in the Journal of Management Studies, we adopted an outward-looking perspective to examine the effects of social enterprises on individuals, communities, organizations, and society. We conducted a comparative qualitative analysis of 49 social enterprises from ten countries across diverse sectors. Our aim was to provide a holistic understanding of social enterprise outcomes, which is crucial for assessing their effectiveness in achieving social objectives and guiding internal organizational processes. 

Findings 

We identified three overarching outcome dimensions that social enterprises focus on to create social impact: 

1. Individual Transformation – Social enterprises influence individuals’ behaviors, attitudes, and values through interpersonal engagement. 

2. Capital Provision – Social enterprises provide physical and financial resources, as well as knowledge, skills, and social connections, to individuals, communities, and organizations. 

3. Societal Influence – Social enterprises shape social norms, influence policy, and support social movements. 

Our analysis further revealed that social enterprises combine these outcome dimensions to varying degrees, leading us to develop a typology of seven distinct types of social enterprises. For example: 

– Activistic social enterprises focus exclusively on societal influence, often engaging in advocacy and raising awareness about social issues. One such enterprise in our sample operates a news media platform dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion. 

– Enabling social enterprises combine capital provision with individual transformation. For instance, a street paper venture in our study employs homeless individuals as vendors while fostering changes in their behaviors, attitudes, and values to empower them. 

– Encompassing social enterprises integrate individual transformation, capital provision, and societal influence. One such enterprise developed a digital application to reduce food waste, while fostering change in students’ waste management practices during school visits and leading initiatives for legislative changes in food product labeling. 

Beyond Hybrid Organizing: A Shift to Multi-Objective Organizing  

This typology categorizes social enterprises based on their approaches to addressing social issues and illustrates how they navigate barriers and trade-offs in creating social impact. Traditionally, social enterprises have been viewed as hybrid organizations that balance social and business objectives. One of the major contributions of our study is the shift from this traditional concept of hybrid organizing to multi-objective organizing. Rather than merely balancing social and business goals, social enterprises often embrace multiple social objectives. 

Implications for Practice, Policy, and Research   

Our findings have significant implications for social entrepreneurs, policymakers, and scholars. The typology we developed helps practitioners understand the types of social enterprises that are most effective in addressing specific complex social and environmental problems. We encourage social entrepreneurs to adopt a problem-oriented approach—one that begins by analyzing the root causes of social problems. This approach allows them to identify the specific barriers that need to be addressed and determine the most suitable combinations of outcomes to overcome those barriers. For policymakers, our typology provides a framework for tailoring support to different types of social enterprises. For scholars, this study opens new avenues for examining the complex interdependencies involved in creating social impact. 

This research was funded by the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business, project nr. F3/21/2021.