TY - JOUR

T1 - From Balancing Missions to Mission Drift

T2 - The Role of the Institutional Context, Spaces, and Compartmentalization in the Scaling of Social Enterprises

AU - Ometto, M. Paola

AU - Gegenhuber, Thomas

AU - Winter, Johanna

AU - Greenwood, Royston

PY - 2019/5/1

Y1 - 2019/5/1

N2 - In this article, we explain the mechanisms that allow social enterprises to balance their missions, and the risk of mission drift as organizations grow. We empirically explore Incubator-BUS (I-BUS), a student organization within a private Brazilian university, which sought to incubate cooperatives for vulnerable groups. Although initially successful in balancing its missions, I-BUS then failed. We show how scaling-up can complicate the balancing of different missions within the same organization. We propose that, to balance their missions, social enterprises—especially recently formed and democratically managed enterprises—need not only “spaces of negotiation,” as suggested in the literature, but also “herding spaces” that connect an organization to its institutional context. We indicate why herding spaces are critical, but then show how scaling-up can result in organizational “compartmentalization” that undermines them.

AB - In this article, we explain the mechanisms that allow social enterprises to balance their missions, and the risk of mission drift as organizations grow. We empirically explore Incubator-BUS (I-BUS), a student organization within a private Brazilian university, which sought to incubate cooperatives for vulnerable groups. Although initially successful in balancing its missions, I-BUS then failed. We show how scaling-up can complicate the balancing of different missions within the same organization. We propose that, to balance their missions, social enterprises—especially recently formed and democratically managed enterprises—need not only “spaces of negotiation,” as suggested in the literature, but also “herding spaces” that connect an organization to its institutional context. We indicate why herding spaces are critical, but then show how scaling-up can result in organizational “compartmentalization” that undermines them.

KW - Management studies

KW - incubator

KW - mission drift

KW - scaling

KW - social enterprise

KW - spaces

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044360458&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0007650318758329

DO - 10.1177/0007650318758329

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85044360458

VL - 58

SP - 1003

EP - 1046

JO - Business and Society

JF - Business and Society

SN - 0007-6503

IS - 5

ER -