Social entrepreneurship and organizational performance : combining the resource dependence and resource-based views

Abstract

The increasing number of social enterprises and number of charities becoming social enterprises is heartening in terms of the potential impact that we will see in the future on our society and the environment. Social enterprises might be recognized as a new phenomenon in Thailand, but actually there are many frustrations regarding their performance. The objectives of this study, then, were to investigate the role of social entrepreneurship and the social capital of the social enterprise in terms of resources and performance, to examine the effects of social entrepreneurship and social capital on organizational resources and performance, and to make recommendations for management and government policies to promote social enterprises as part of public service providers. The research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. Of the 1,000 social enterprises that were mailed the survey, 158 (15.8%) returned completed questionnaires. The proposed path analytic model was tested using structural equation modeling to evaluate the theoretically-specified constructs in order to measure and examine the proposed causal relationship model. The results of the hypothesis testing indicated that only three of the six hypotheses were significant, social entrepreneurship had a positive effect on social capital, social capital had a positive effect on organizational resources, and organizational resources had a positive effect on organizational performance. Integrating resource dependence theory with the resource-based view can be a better link to organizational performance than using only one theory. The study results make contributions to those that are involved in administration and politics. Social entrepreneurs will have a better understanding of the factors affecting their performance. Managers should build and use their entrepreneurship to gain social capital and organizational resources. For further research, the model proposed in this study should be examined using other types of social enterprises or organizations. Social return on investment may be seen as a part of organizational performance. Comparative study between modern NGOs that have adopted the concept of social entrepreneurship and traditional NGOs could be conducted, and the barriers or obstacles of social enterprises could be studied to enhance and sustain their performance.