What Makes An Enterprise ‘Social’? Delineating The Theoretical Constructs Of A Social Enterprise

Abstract

The term social enterprise is mystical. To many, it connotes altruism and a benevolent alternative to commercial enterprise. It requires extensive soul searching and an unconditional willingness to dispense those messianic obligations often deemed unrewarding to their commercial comrades. We argue that perceiving social enterprise as a distant breed is antithetical. In this paper, we stamp the point that social enterprise is of intent and ethos but not of form. An enterprise becomes ‘social’ when they voluntarily decenter their self-interests and posits its stakeholders’ rights above their own. An enterprise self-actualizes when they reflexively learn from crises, institute constructive organizational change and embed moral legitimacy within their core values. In this paper, we justify those reasons why a strict demarcation between social and commercial enterprise is unsustainable. We then delineate two fundamental theoretical constructs that make an enterprise ‘social’. Towards the end of the paper, we explain how these theoretical constructs may trigger fresh research epistemology in social enterprise.