Leveraging competitive context: Reconciling the dual objectives of social enterprises

• Main Authors: Aguilar, Johansen Benedict T., Gamboa, Jose Miguel P., Ong, Jin Nataniel U., Perez, Samuel John F.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Social entrepreneurship: Social responsibility of business.; Business and Corporate Communications
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11368
• Institution: De La Salle University

Social enterprises have always been seen as a long-term solution for widespread poverty, especially in the Philippines”where poverty incidence rates climb even amidst abundant natural resources and labor. However, the difficulty of balancing two contrasting organizational objectives (economic gain and social gain) greatly dampens the effectiveness of social enterprises. Hence, the researchers applied Porter and Kramers (2005) Four Elements of Competitive Context framework originally intended to assess the strategic rationale behind corporate philanthropy to the social enterprise setting, in order to learn whether social enterprises can reconcile their two objectives by improving their competitive context through social activities. Through a comprehensive cross-case analysis involving interviews with the owners, employees, and beneficiaries of four Philippine social enterprises, the researchers uncover that social enterprises that improve their competitive context through social activities are better able to reconcile, the researchers further propose that Porter and Kramers (2005) framework be modified to allow for gradations in improvement of competitive context.