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The Social and Economic Mission of Social Enterprises: Dimensions, Measurement, Validation, and Relation

Robin Stevens¹; Nathalie Moray²; Johan Bruneel³

¹ Ghent University, Tweekerkenstraat 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. · ² University College Ghent, Kortrijksesteenweg 14, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. · ³ Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Tweekerkenstraat 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Social entrepreneurs have a dominant social mission and generate revenue to ensure financial viability. However, most research treats the extent to which social entrepreneurs actually adhere to social and economic mission as a black box. Performing higher order confirmatory factor analysis on a sample of social enterprises (N∼270), this study identifies dimensions and validates measures for understanding and delineating social and economic missions, and shows how the two constructs relate to each other. The theoretical untangling and the empirical validation of social and economic missions as distinct constructs—and multiple potential constellations of attached relative importance—opens up opportunities for quantitative hypothesis–testing research in social entrepreneurship.

DOI

10.1111/etap.12091

Volume

39 (5)

Pages

1051-1082

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

crossref