Special issue: Unveiling the Economic Rationale behind the Social Business Model
Social Business, Volume 5, Number 1, 2015
Editorial: Unveiling the economic rationale behind the social business model
Alejandro Agafonow, Cam Donaldson & Thomas Hoerber
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Agafonow, A., Donaldson, C. & Hoerber, T (2015) Editorial: Unveiling the economic rationale behind the social business model. Social Business, 5(1), 1-4(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/204440815X14267607784686
The economic rationale behind the social business model: A research agenda
Alejandro Agafonow & Cam Donaldson
“This article’s purpose is to set out the economic rationale that underpins social businesses, engaging in a research agenda’s conceptual development on hybrid firm ecosystems. A different form of business is needed to prevent dividend-distributing companies from abusing the market power allowed by barriers that keep competitors away at the expense of the poor. Thus, bottomup development strategies have limits if solely based on dividend-distributing companies. An alternative is offered by social businesses, but these are difficult to theorise within the constraints of Pareto optimality (Pareto, 1971) …” Read more >
Agafonow, A. & Donaldson, C. (2015). The economic rationale behind the social business model: A research agenda. Social Business, 5(1), 5-16(12). http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/204440815X14267607784721
Social and economic tension in social enterprises: Does it exist?
Inés Alegre
“Purpose: Social enterprises are those organisations that seek to attain a particular social objective through the sale of products or services. Social enterprises, therefore, have two main goals: the social and the economic, which coexist in a single organisation. The literature on social entrepreneurship is divided between those authors that defend that this coexistence creates a tension between the two objectives and that there is a trade-off between the social and the economic goal; and those authors that affirm that precisely the most distinctive characteristic of social enterprises is that they manage to merge harmoniously these two objectives. The purpose of the present research is to shed some light on this discussion by evaluating in which cases the tension between the social and the economic goal is exacerbated and in which cases it is mitigated …” Read more >
Alegre, I. (2015). Social and economic tension in social enterprises: Does it exist? Social Business, 5(1), 17-32(16). http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/204440815X14267607784767
Stewardship revisited at the fuzzy ends of the Yunus social business framework
Maria Ballesteros-Sola
“Purpose: In recent years, there has been a growing number of projects and organisations self-labelled as a Grameen or Yunus Social Business (YSB). The model has attracted the interest of media, academic researchers and practitioners. This paper presents a theoretical model to frame the diverse phenomena of Yunus Social Business, reviewing its different components through the lens of stewardship theory. The paper aims to extend the interest about YSB beyond social entrepreneurship and attract researchers from overlapping fields. Analysis of agency-stewardship literature points to a lack of consensus on what theory dominates corporate social responsibility (CSR), nonprofits and social entrepreneurship agent-principal relationships, so stewardship is revisited to understand its exploratory validity in the different domains described in the YSB framework …” Read more >
Ballesteros-Sola, M. (2015). Stewardship revisited at the fuzzy ends of the Yunus social business framework. Social Business, 5(1), 33-46(14). http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/204440815X14267607784802
The new merger: Combining third sector and market-based approaches to tackling inequalities
Michael J.Roy, Clementine Hill O’Connor, Neil McHugh, Olga Biosca & Cam Donaldson,
“In this paper we discuss the challenge posed by growing inequalities, specifically health inequalities, which have grown increasingly wider in recent decades. Rather than arguing for a wholesale return to state intervention to curb the worst excesses of the market, we put forward a less obvious potential solution, arguing for a greater role – and greater recognition – for the ‘social economy’: the part of the third or non-profit sector concerned with trading in the market rather than relying upon public funds or charitable donations to stay in business …” Read more >
Roy, M.J., O’Connor, C.H., McHugh, N., Biosca, O. & Donaldson, C. (2015). The new merger: Combining third sector and market-based approaches to tackling inequalities. Social Business, 5(1), 47-60(14). http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/204440815X14267607784848
