How is social entrepreneurship possible? A multilevel study on social-entrepreneurial activity enabling mechanisms

ARTICLE 1 - Hybridization of diverging institutional logics through common-note practices An analogy with music and the case of social enterprises - ABSTRACT - Hybrid organizations exhibit high degree of innovativeness, but also instability due to the conflicting institutional logics underpinning their activities. We enrich the discussion on how to reconcile conflicting logics in hybrid organizations using the analogy with music theory. In particular, we get inspiration from a technique used to modulate conflicting harmonies by means of the notes they have in common (common-notes) to derive ideas on how to compose conflicting logics by means of the practices they have in common. We illustrate these ideas in the specific case of social enterprises, showing that practices able to “unblock” a marginalized individual’s value creation capabilities can be considered common-note practices allowing the social enterprise to fruitfully and sustainably combine commercial and social welfare logics. ARTICLE 2 - Made in Carcere: Freedom through empowerment for convicted women! - ABSTRACT - In this paper we analyze the case of Made in Carcere, an innovative social enterprise that creates and shares social and economic value with one of the most disadvantaged stakeholder groups in society: convicted women. Relying on an extensive database that covers eight years of activity, we propose a micro-level analysis of the processes adopted by Made in Carcere to empower its target stakeholders. We show that this complex effort is successfully unfolded through two macro-processes: the creation and management of a safe space, and allowing convicted women to reach and experience the external environment. Our work provides evidence of an exceptional organization that successfully confronts the restrictive and disempowering setting of prisons by empowering women through an innovative approach of human integral development. ARTICLE 3 - Mechanisms and boundaries of collective action in social entrepreneurship. - ABSTRACT - New frontiers in social entrepreneurship research are moving from the idea of the social entrepreneur as a single individual in favour of a larger model based on a multiplicity of subjects. In this paper we aim at moving this perspective onward and claim we should adopt a higher level of analysis considering the collective of subjects mobilized by the entrepreneur(s) to be really able to capture the social impact of the undertaken economic activity. Moreover, using a case study, we identify two mechanisms useful to draw the boundaries of such collective, the unit of analysis at the basis of this new perspective.