Designing a social enterprise: Organization configuration and social stakeholders’ work involvement

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine, drawing on organization studies and stakeholder\r\ntheories, the organizational configuration that enables the social enterprise to succeed by combining\r\nsocial and economic imperatives in a sustainable way.\r\nDesign/methodology/approach – The research project is based on the analysis of a multiple\r\ncross-national case study consisting of seven social enterprises that are active in the drug rehabilitation\r\ncontext. Multiple rounds of data gathering and analysis combined with within-case analysis and\r\ncross-case comparison enabled the authors to evaluate the perceived, declared and subjective\r\norganizational perspectives.\r\nFindings – Results suggest that organizational performance – measured as the ability to achieve\r\nsocial goals, generate resources and pursue sustainability over time – depends on the implementation of\r\na participative organizational configuration defined by the interaction of six organizational components\r\n(i.e. time and space designed for collective activities, low degree of formalization, social control,\r\ncentralized decision-making processes, transformational leadership style and a workforce structure\r\nbased on social stakeholders as workers). The involvement of social stakeholders emerges as a\r\ndistinctive feature in the social enterprise domain.\r\nOriginality/value – The study contributes to extending the configuration approach to the social\r\nenterprise domain, also as a fruitful method to manage social stakeholders and to advance the\r\ndiscussion on hybrid organizations.