SAM ADVANCED MANAGEMENT JOURNAL

Intra-Stakeholder Heterogeneity Strategy to Prevent Mission Drift in Social Enterprise: Story of a Social Venture in Kenya

Latha Poonamallee and Simy Joy

DOI:

Citation: Poonamallee, L., & Joy, S. (2023). Intra-stakeholder heterogeneity strategy to prevent mission drift in social enterprise: Story of a social venture in Kenya. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 88(1),61-72.

Abstract

Mission drift is a major concern for social ventures. This paper advances the beginning of a conceptual framework on stakeholder strategy to prevent mission in drift in social ventures. This paper describes the use of intra-stakeholder heterogeneity strategy to prevent mission drift by a social venture in Kenya. The paper also describes how this approach affects their pricing and product development strategies

References

Alexius, S., & Örnberg, J. C. (2015). Mission(s) impossible? Configuring values in the governance of state-owned enterprises. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 28(4/5), 286–306. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-08-2015-0151

Balser, D., & McClusky, J. (2005). Managing stakeholder relationships and nonprofit organization effectiveness. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 15(3), 295–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.70

Battilana, J., & Dorado, S. (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1419–1440. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.57318391

Battilana, J., & Lee, M. (2014). Advancing research on hybrid organizing: Insights from the study of social enterprises. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 397–441. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520.2014.893615

Battilana, J., Sengul, M., Pache, A.-C., & Model, J. (2015). Harnessing productive tensions in hybrid organizations: The case of work integration social enterprises. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6), 1658–1685. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0903

Blanche, S., Levillain, K., & Hatcheul, A. (2016). Purpose-driven corporations: How corporate law reorders the field of corporate governance. European Academy of Management Conference 2016. Presented at the European Academy of Management Conference, Paris, France.

Copestake, J. (2007). Mainstreaming microfinance: Social performance management or mission drift? World Development, 35(10), 1721–1738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.06.004

Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. The Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 65–91.

Driscoll, C., & Starik, M. (2004). The primordial stakeholder: Advancing the conceptual consideration of stakeholder status for the natural environment. Journal of Business Ethics, 49(1), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:busi.0000013852.62017.0e

Ebrahim, A., Battilana, J., & Mair, J. (2014). The governance of social enterprises: Mission drift and accountability challenges in hybrid organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 34, 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2014.09.001

Fassin, Y., & Gosselin, D. (2011). The collapse of a european bank in the financial crisis: An analysis from stakeholder and ethical perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 102(2), 169–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0812-2

Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman.

Frooman, J. (1999). Stakeholder influence strategies. Academy of Management Review, 24(2), 191–205. https://doi.org/10.2307/259074

Gonin, M., Besharov, M., Smith, W., & Gachet, N. (2012). Managing social-business tensions: A review and research agenda for social enterprise. Cornell University. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/919

Haigh, N., & Hoffman, A. J. (2012). Hybrid Organizations: The Next Chapter in Sustainable Business. Organizational Dynamics, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2933616

Harrison, D. A., & Klein, K. J. (2007). What’s the difference? Diversity constructs as separation, variety, or disparity in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1199–1228. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.26586096

Haugh, H. (2007). Community-Led social venture creation. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 31(2), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00168.x

Jay, J. (2013). Navigating paradox as a mechanism of change and innovation in hybrid organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 56(1), 137–159. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0772

Jones, D., & Keogh, W. (2006). Social enterprise: A case of terminological ambiguity and complexity. Social Enterprise Journal, 2(1), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508610680000710

Jones, M. B. (2007). The multiple sources of mission drift. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(2), 299–307. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007300385

Jones, T. M., Felps, W., & Bigley, G. A. (2007). Ethical theory and stakeholder-related decisions: The role of stakeholder culture. Academy of Management Review, 32(1), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.23463924

Jüttner, U., & Schlange, L. E. (1996). A network approach to strategy. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 13(5), 479–494. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-8116(96)00025-0

Kassinis, G., & Vafeas, N. (2006). Stakeholder pressures and environmental performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49(1), 145–159. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.20785799

Lee, M. (2014). Mission and market? The performance of hybrid socialventures. Working Paper. Harvard Business School.

Lumpkin, G. T., Moss, T. W., Gras, D. M., Kato, S., & Amezcua, A. S. (2011). Entrepreneurial processes in social contexts: How are they different, if at all? Small Business Economics, 40(3), 761–783. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9399-3

Mair, J., & Marti, I. (2009). Entrepreneurship in and around institutional voids: A case study from Bangladesh. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(5), 419–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.04.006

Marquis, C., & Velez-Villa, L. (2012). Warby Parker: Vision of a “good” fashion brand. Harvard Business School, Case No. 413-051. Retrieved from https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42908

O’Donahoe, N., Leijonhufvud, C., Saltuk, Y., Bugg-Levine, A., & Brandenburg, M. (2010). Impact investments: An emerging asset class. Retrieved from JP Morgan Global Research website: http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/2b053b2b-8feb-46ea-adbd-89068d59785-impact.pdf.

Phillips, W., Lee, H., James, P., Ghobadian, A., & O’Regan, N. (2015). Social innovation and social entrepreneurship: A systematic review. Group & Organization Management, 40(3), 428–461.

Polzin, F. (2010). Stakeholder management in social ventures exploring the effects of stakeholder salience, trust and conflict on social enterprise performance. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2578449

Rowley, T. J. (1997). Moving beyond dyadic ties: A network theory of stakeholder influences. Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 887. https://doi.org/10.2307/259248

Rugasira, A. (2013). A good African story: How a small company built a global coffee brand. New York: Random House.

Santos, F., Pache, A. C., & Birkholz, C. (2015). Making hybrids work: Aligning business models and organizational design for social enterprises. California Management Review, 57(3), 36–58. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2015.57.3.36

Schlange, L. E. (2009). Stakeholder identification in sustainability entrepreneurship: The role of managerial and organizational cognition. Greener Management International, 55, 13–32. https://doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.3062.2006.au.00004

Scillitoe, J., Poonamallee, L., & Joy, S. (2016). Entrepreneurial venture market and social orientation influence on technological innovation impact. IEEE PICMET Conference. Presented at the PICMET Conference, Honolulu, HI.

Smith, L., & Woods, C. (2015). Stakeholder engagement in the social entrepreneurship process: Identity, governance and legitimacy. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 6(2), 186–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2014.987802

Smith, W. K., Leonard, H., & Epstein, M. (2007). Digital divide data: A social enterprise in action. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review website: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=34549

Thompson, J. (1967). Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Vandekerckhove, W., & Dentchev, N. A. (2005). A network perspective on stakeholder management: Facilitating entrepreneurs in the discovery of opportunities. Journal of Business Ethics, 60(3), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-0130-7

Weisbrod, B. A. (2004). The pitfalls of profits. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2(3), 40–47.

Whiteman, G., & Cooper, W. H. (2000). Ecological embeddedness. Academy of Management Journal, 43(6), 1265–1282. https://doi.org/10.5465/1556349

Winn, M. I. (2001). Building stakeholder theory with a decision modeling methodology. Business & Society, 40(2), 133–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/000765030104000202

Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage.

Yunus, M. (2010). Building social business : The new kind of capitalism that serves humanitys most pressing needs. New York: New York Public Affairs.

Subscription or SAM Membership Required

Share This Article

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn