The construct social impact has been shaping debates and supporting decision making in many segments of society. From research agendas in academia to the missions of corporations, social impact is easily presented as one of the centers of concern. Despite all this relevance, little is known about social impact\'s conceptual and paradigmatic approaches that frame the social impact academic research agenda and, similarly, the meaning-making processes that lead academics and practitioners\' understanding of social impact. This thesis fills this gap in three parts: first, by characterizing the academic research agenda on social impact over the years and building a snapshot of its paradigmatic orientation; second, by studying the academic discourse to understand the academic meaning-making processes of the social impact concept; third, by analyzing the discourse of practitioners from the Brazilian social finance ecosystem to unveil regularities and differences on their processes of signification of social impact and how these meanings affect their practices. To characterize the academic research agenda on social impact, I use bibliometric techniques and structured literature review. The contributions of this characterization are both the methodology applied and discussions on how social impact studies can advance. I show that research on social impact is rapidly expanding and integrate insights from environmental, social and economic related areas. Besides its interdisciplinary trait, the social impact research is mostly of positivist nature, especially interested in assessment. These results inform how social impact research can advance and proposes more subjective inquiries to complement the positivist studies, as more comprehensive approaches increase the potential for integrating scientific knowledge into decision making. To address the need for interpretative studies about social impact, I analyze the discourse of academic literature on social impact. To this end, I apply the social constructivist lenses and the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD). The analysis shows that, at least, three different classifications of social impact emerge from the academic discursive construction: 1) social impact as a dynamic force; 2) social impact as a side-effect of development; and 3) social impact as a performance metric. Besides some expected differences across different research fields, I also observe regularities: social impact is perceived as measurable, multifaceted and interaction-dependent. Finally, these uncovered regularities, particularly in works related to social entrepreneurship that construct social impact as a metric of performance, puts social impact as the key concept that connects the actors in these scenarios. Thus, I also apply social constructivist lenses and SKAD to gain insights on the construction of social impact by Brazilian impact investors and social entrepreneurs. In summary, I find that differences in the meaning-making process of social impact influence the way in which social problems are understood, as well as the designing of solutions and, consequently, the metrics to assess such solutions. Also, I observe how different meaning-makings of social impact shape investor-investee relationships. This thesis concludes with guidelines on how future academic research, social impact investors and social entrepreneurs can benefit from the important aspects uncovered through the analysis of their discourses / O construto impacto social tem moldado os debates e apoiando a tomada de decisões em muitos segmentos da sociedade. Desde agendas de pesquisa acadêmica até às missões das corporações, impacto social é colocado como um dos centros de interesse. Apesar da relevância, pouco se conhece sobre as abordagens conceituais e paradigmáticas da agenda de pesquisas acadêmicas sobre o tema impacto social, ou como sobre como acadêmicos e profissionais constroem diferentes entendimentos de impacto social. Esta tese preenche essa lacuna em três estágios: primeiro, caracterizando a agenda de pesquisa acadêmica sobre o impacto social ao longo dos anos e construindo um retrato de sua orientação paradigmática; segundo, estudando o discurso acadêmico para compreender como a comunidade acadêmica constrói significados de impacto social; terceiro, analisando o discurso de atores do ecossistema brasileiro de finanças sociais para desvelar seus processos de significação do termo impacto social, bem como os efeitos desses significados em suas práticas. Para caracterizar a agenda de pesquisa acadêmica sobre impacto social, eu utilizo técnicas bibliométricas e revisão estruturada da literatura. Eu mostro que a pesquisa sobre impacto social está se expandindo rapidamente e integra contribuições de diferentes áreas de pesquisa. Além de seu traço interdisciplinar, a pesquisa de impacto social é majoritariamente de natureza positivista, especialmente interessada em avaliação. Esses resultados informam como a pesquisa de impacto social pode avançar e propõe lentes de pesquisa mais interpretativas para complementar os estudos positivistas e aumentar o potencial de integração do conhecimento científico na tomada de decisão. Como um primeiro passo para preencher a lacuna de estudos interpretativos sobre impacto social, eu analiso o discurso da literatura acadêmica sobre impacto social. Para tanto, aplico as lentes do construtivismo social e da Sociologia do Conhecimento Aplicada do Discurso (SKAD). A análise mostra que, pelo menos, três classificações diferentes de impacto social emergem da construção discursiva acadêmica: 1) o impacto social como uma força dinâmica; 2) impacto social como efeito colateral do desenvolvimento; e 3) impacto social como uma métrica de desempenho. Além de algumas diferenças esperadas em diferentes campos de pesquisa, também observo regularidades: o impacto social é percebido como mensurável, multifacetado e dependente de interação entre agentes. Finalmente, essas regularidades descobertas, particularmente em trabalhos relacionados ao empreendedorismo social que constroem o impacto social como uma métrica de desempenho, colocam o impacto social como o conceito-chave que conecta os atores nesse cenário. Assim, eu também aplico as lentes do construtivismo social e SKAD para entender como se dá a construção do impacto social por investidores de impacto e empreendedores sociais brasileiros. Em resumo, percebo que as diferenças no processo de construção de significado de impacto social influenciam a maneira como os problemas sociais são compreendidos, bem como a concepção de soluções e, consequentemente, as métricas para avaliar tais soluções. Além disso, observo como os diferentes significados do impacto social modelam as relações entre investidor e investido. Esta tese conclui com orientações sobre como futuros pesquisadores, investidores de impacto social e empreendedores sociais podem se beneficiar dos aspectos descobertos através da análise de seus discursos

In this Masters Research Report I explore how South Africa, in reaction to the global economic crisis’s impact on national unemployment statistics, has embraced the social economy. As this is a recent undertaking of the state, this research covers the timeline of events pertinent to what I determine to be the tipping point of the social economy in South Africa between 2009-­‐2011. Based on documentary analysis and in-­‐depth interviews with key actors determined to be ‘experts’ in the field, this research attempts to gain an understanding of how the concept of the social economy and its organizations of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise are being transposed onto the South African landscape, specifically in the Gauteng province. By examining the trend of the social economy and how it is being conceptualized in the country, this research aims to understand the implications for the future of South Africa’s socioeconomic development path.

Organizations operate in a dynamic environment in which they are faced with an ongoing dilemma of maximizing profit and meeting the demand from society to take social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained an increase in interest with its intended aim of corporations taking responsibility for how the business affects the society within an economic, environmental and social perspective. However, its intended aim is being hindered by the idea of a trade-off between profit and social responsibility in CSR theory and practice. We suggest that social entrepreneurship can have an impact on CSR in moving beyond these trade-offs and can furthermore bridge the gap between business’ and society’s demands. Thereby, our thesis has the aim to investigate how CSR research can move beyond the presumed trade-offs through the impact of social entrepreneurship theory. For this purpose, we have chosen a conceptual research approach in order to build a conceptual model that can serve as a theoretical contribution and an inspiration for further practical use. The model suggests that components of social entrepreneurship can be linked to strategic CSR dimensions and, therefore, impact the outcome by creating both economic and social value.

My work investigates the effects of founding conditions for organizational founders on the eventual satisfaction founders have with the financial and social outcomes of their organization. First, I introduce two new constructs, social salience and economic salience, which represent the intended social or economic goals of the founder for their organization when they found the new organization. I then utilize organizational imprinting theory to argue that the social and economic salience, along with founders’ previous work experience, influence the structure of the new organization via the legal form. I then argue that the legal form influences the specific capabilities that the organization will acquire or create early in the organization’s life. Finally, I argue that the capabilities established at founding will influence the eventual satisfaction founders currently have with their organizations’ social and financial outcomes as the capabilities endure over time. Based on a sample of 150 organizational founders that are still actively managing their organizations, my results support the idea that founding conditions for individual founders influence the capabilities that their organizations create or acquire. Further, founders’ current level of satisfaction with the financial and social performance of their organizations is significantly related to these capabilities. These results largely support the process based model of imprinting effects on organizational outcomes, and suggest that founders play a critical role in setting the original imprint of an organization that will endure via organizational inertia, perhaps long after the imprint’s originally designed purpose. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Este estudo teve como objetivo comparar aspectos individuais e organizacionais associados com o processo de aprendizagem organizacional em organizações empreendedoras sociais dos países Colômbia e Brasil. O trabalho realizado caracteriza-se como qualitativo e comparativo, e utilizou-se o estudo de caso como estratégia de pesquisa. A coleta de dados foi realizada, por sua vez, por entrevistas, observações participantes e análise de documentos oficiais nos dois estudos de casos. A análise de conteúdo dos dados mostraram que há um processo de aprendizagem organizacional em estas organizações predominantemente pela coerência entre objetivos pessoais e organizacionais representado em uma intencionalidade por parte dos sujeitos e a organização de transformação social, harmonia que facilitou o processo de aprendizagem organizacional de forma semelhante nas duas organizações pesquisadas. Em quanto aos aspectos organizacionais associados ao processo de aprendizagem mostrou que está associado a padrões culturais organizacionais, memoria, comunicação, estratégia e estrutura organizacional. A constatação da natureza psicossocial do processo de aprendizagem organizacional permeia os processos e procedimentos na organização, sendo transversal em todos os projetos desenvolvidos por estas organizações. Finaliza o documento apresentando algumas reflexões sobre a importância dos elementos individuais na construção de organização e da aprendizagem organizacional nestes contextos / This study centered towards comparing individual and organizational aspects associated with the organizational learning process in social entrepreneurial organizations from Colombia and Brazil. The study developed here characterizes as qualitative and comparative, in which case study is used as the main research methodology. Data collect was done through interviews, participant observations and official document analysis from the case studies organizations. Data analysis demonstrates that there is an organizational learning process with predominance of certain coherence between personal and organizational which manifest itself through a common social transforming intention in the individuals and the organization. This intention made the learning process easier for both organizations alike. About the organizational aspects associated to the learning process it is shown that it it is itself associated with corporate culture patterns, memory, communication, strategy and organizational structure. The establishment of the psychosocial nature of the learning process permeates the processes and procedures of all projects developed across the organization. This work concludes presenting some comments on the importance of individual elements in the construction of the organization and organizational learning on such contexts

O empreendedorismo social surge como uma nova forma de empreender, preocupado acima da geração de valor econômico, com o potencial de acréscimo de valor social incutido em determinado setor da sociedade. As micro e pequenas empresas vêm sendo objeto de estudo da contabilidade ao longo do tempo, porém os negócios sociais não parecem estar recebendo atenção devida tendo em vista serem um tipo inovador de negócio, que se preocupa com a transformação de uma sociedade que cada vez mais se questiona sobre os impactos ambientais e de desigualdade social causados pelo sistema econômico vigente. Neste sentido, o presente estudo teve por objetivo analisar o estado atual de interação entre a contabilidade e empreendedores sociais e, para além disso, indagar de quais formas um uso mais qualitativo da contabilidade pode assegurar o êxito deste tipo de negócios. O trabalho coletou seus dados por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas com empreendedores sociais e profissionais de contabilidade que prestam serviços a esses empreendedores. Como resultado da análise das entrevistas, pôde-se vislumbrar um cenário de distanciamento entre a contabilidade e os negócios sociais. Porém já existem profissionais atentos a essa nova vertente de negócio, profissionais contábeis que enxergam um papel de destaque desse tipo de empreendimento por seu caráter de transformação social. Pretende-se com a pesquisa, além de outras coisas, agregar visibilidade aos negócios sociais, despertar maior interesse pelo tema nas pesquisas em contabilidade e conscientizar os empreendedores sobre os benefícios que o uso de uma contabilidade de qualidade pode trazer para seus negócios / Social entrepreneurship emerges as a new way of undertaking, preoccupied not only with the generation of economic value, but also with the potential for added social value instilled in a sector of society. Micro and small enterprises have been an increasingly research subject in accounting over time, but social businesses do not seem to be receiving proper attention due to being an innovative type of business, one that concerns itself with the transformation of a society that increasingly ponders on the environmental impacts and social inequality caused by the current economic system. In this sense, the present study aimed to analyze the current state of interaction between accounting and social entrepreneurs and, in addition, to question in which ways can a more qualitative use of accounting ensure the success of this type of business. This work collected its data through semi-structured interviews with social entrepreneurs and accounting professionals who provide services to these entrepreneurs. Through the analysis of the interviews, we could notice a scenario in which there is still some distance between accounting and social businesses. However, there are already some professionals paying attention to this new kind of business, accounting professionals who see a prominent role in this type of enterprise for its character of social transformation. The aim of the research is to add visibility to social affairs, to raise awareness of the topic in accounting research, and to make entrepreneurs aware of the benefits that the use of quality accounting can bring to their business

Le modalità secondo cui iniziative imprenditoriali ad elevato impatto sociale possono amplificare il valore sociale creato mediante la propria attività costituisce uno dei temi più rilevanti per quelle imprese che intendono affrontare piaghe sociali ampiamente diffuse quali la povertà, l'accesso all'educazione e la salute. L'elaborato intende contribuire alla letteratura sull'imprenditorialità sociale discutendo le strategie, i modelli organizzativi e le competenze richieste per massimizzare l'ampiezza dell'impatto e aumentare le probabilità di successo. Tali temi sono discussi in tre articoli. Il primo, intitolato “Scaling social entrepreneurial impact: an open innovation perspective” presenta un modello teorico che mette in relazione tre differenti strategie di amplificazione dell'impatto sociale con le probabilità da parte dell'organizzazione di soddisfare le proprie attese in termini di valore creato atteso e di valore potenziale rivelato. Il modello suggerisce una relazione significativa tra l'adozione di confini organizzativi "aperti" e l'attitudine a rivelare nuovo valore potenziale. Inoltre, il grado di affinità tra i contesti in cui l'innovazione sociale è replicata modera tale relazione. Il secondo articolo, intitolato “Ba creation and Ba expansion in academic-practitioner partnerships in the social entrepreneurship field", fa riferimento all' "organizational knowledge creation theory" e propone, tramite un caso di studio longitudinale, un modello che illustra gli antecedenti della creazione e la successiva espansione del "Ba" nel contesto di una partnership tra un ateneo universitario e un'impresa sociale suggerendo in che modo gli attori coinvolti nel processo di creazione della conoscenza possano modificare i propri ruoli per produrre un impatto sociale superiore. Il terzo articolo, intitolato “Scaling Social Impact: A Replication and Extension of SCALERS” contribuisce alla letteratura replicando il primo test del modello SCALERS in un nuovo contesto internazionale (Italia) e sviluppandolo ulteriormente includendo alcune contingenze specifiche quali variabili moderatrici del modello. / Scaling social impact is among the most relevant challenges that social enterprises face in addressing global issues like poverty, access to education and health. The dissertation aims at contributing to social entrepreneurship literature by dealing with quests about how and why specific strategies and organizational models may improve the likelihood and the magnitude of the impact exerted by social organizations and which capabilities are most needed for impact to be scaled. Those issues are discussed along three essays. The first article entitled “Scaling social entrepreneurial impact: an open innovation perspective” presents a theoretical model connecting three strategies for spreading social innovation to organization’s confidence on achieving expected social impact and revealing new potential value. The model predicts that a strong relationship exists between the adoption of an open organizational structure and the attitude to reveal potential social value. Indeed, context similarity moderates this relation. The second article entitled “Ba creation and Ba expansion in academic-practitioner partnerships in the social entrepreneurship field” - by building on organizational knowledge creation theory - advances a model predicting the antecedents of ba creation and ba expansion within the framework of university – field organization partnerships, this way contributing to the social entrepreneurship field and suggesting how participants in ba creation and expansion may extend their roles in the knowledge creation process to achieve greater impact. The third article entitled “Scaling Social Impact: A Replication and Extension of SCALERS” contributes to the emerging scholarship on scaling of social impact by replicating initial results of the SCALERS model in an international context (i.e., Italy) and including some situational contingencies as moderating variables of the model.

Social entrepreneurship and other new forms such as ecological or sustainable entrepreneurship have emerged as promising new solutions to solve societal problems. Therefore these types of sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship also increasingly attract the interest of researchers, but there is no clear theoretical concept for these emerging research areas yet. As for commercial entrepreneurship, existing research has neglected the influence of contextual factors on the entrepreneurial process. Therefore this topic is not well researched yet and requires an increase in knowledge to keep up with its popularity and potential impact on society. Therefore the research purpose of this study was to systematically analyse how contextual factors, i.e. political & legal, economic, technological, environmental, social and cultural factors, influence the stages of the entrepreneurial process and if this influence differs for commercial and sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs. To fulfill this purpose a theoretical framework depicting the entrepreneurial process in its context was developed, which incorporates the different types of entrepreneurship based on the value they create. In order to adequately explore the research purpose our theoretical framework was applied to the context of Central America. In line with our interpretivistic standpoint we followed an inductive approach with a qualitative, comparative research design of an exploratory nature. We collected secondary data about Central America and conducted a multiple-case study in which we collected primary data from 13 interviews with entrepreneurs being active in Central America. The empirical findings were thoroughly analysed and discussed leading to several interesting results which were used to revise our theoretical framework. Despite a great variety among entrepreneurs we realised that they all undergo the entrepreneurial process and we could therefore successfully apply our theoretical framework. All entrepreneurs are differently influenced by contextual factors in their entrepreneurial process, but disparities are mostly due to the background of the entrepreneurs or the type of venture. Some political and legal, and economic factors have been found to influence commercial and sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs differently, while other economic and social factors rather determine differences between non-profit and for- profit oriented entrepreneurs. This study contributes to theories regarding the influence of contextual factors and concepts in the field of (sustainability-oriented) entrepreneurship as well as methodologies used in this field. It provides considerable practical contributions to entrepreneurs and recommendations for policy-makers which can lead to valuable societal contributions. Throughout the research ethical issues have been considered and quality criteria applied to ensure the trustworthiness of this research.

Submitted by Estagiário SPT BMHS (spt@fgv.br) on 2011-11-28T13:31:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 1418703.pdf: 4591222 bytes, checksum: 704a5c9e586b8098d64e2f4080a48c7d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Estagiário SPT BMHS (spt@fgv.br) on 2011-11-28T13:31:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 1418703.pdf: 4591222 bytes, checksum: 704a5c9e586b8098d64e2f4080a48c7d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Estagiário SPT BMHS (spt@fgv.br) on 2011-11-28T13:31:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 1418703.pdf: 4591222 bytes, checksum: 704a5c9e586b8098d64e2f4080a48c7d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-11-28T13:31:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 1418703.pdf: 4591222 bytes, checksum: 704a5c9e586b8098d64e2f4080a48c7d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Esta pesquisa busca compreender como empreendedores sociais constroem e mantêm a sustentabilidade de seus empreendimentos. Para tanto, utilizou-se a metodologia de Estudo de Casos Múltiplos e da análise dos dados coletados em contraste com a teoria existente sobre empreendedorismo social. Os resultados apontaram que a construção dessa sustentabilidade foi composta por aspectos relativos às características dos empreendedores que conceberam e conduzem as instituições e também a fatores relativos ao modelo de negócio adotado nestes empreendimentos. / This study seeks to comprehend how do social entrepreneurs build and maintain the sustentability of their social enterprises. Thus, it was adopted the multiple case study methodology and the analysis of the obtained data in contrast to the extant theory of social entrepreneurship. The results indicated that the build of that sustentability was composed by aspects related to characteristics of the entrepreneurs that conceived and lead the enterprises and also by factors related to the business model adopted on these undertakings.

O objetivo geral deste trabalho é identificar os fatores contributivos e os fatores limitadores para negócios sociais nas regiões Sul e Sudeste do Brasil, por meio do atingimento dos seguintes objetivos específicos: (a) descrever os principais modelos conceituais existentes para negócios sociais, identificando similaridades e diferenças; (b) identificar as percepções dos principais atores sobre negócios sociais nas regiões Sul e Sudeste do Brasil; e (c) desenvolver um framework com as principais dimensões de análise, fatores contributivos e fatores limitadores para negócios sociais. Foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória, qualitativa de abordagem direta e de análise descritivo-interpretativa, em duas fases. Na primeira, com pesquisa documental, na segunda por meio de trinta e seis entrevistas semi-estruturadas com atores-chave para negócios sociais no Brasil – empreendedores, suas equipes e organizações apoiadoras. Os dados coletados foram analisados segundo a técnica de análise de conteúdo e os resultados são apresentados de forma descritiva e sintetizados no framework de análise. Foram identificados oito fatores contributivos e dezoito fatores limitadores, distribuídos em cinco dimensões de análise. / The main objective of this research is to identify the contributing and limiting factors for social businesses in the Brazilian South and Southeast regions. The specific objectives are: (a) to describe the key existing social business conceptual models, making explicit their similarities and differences; (b) to identify the perception of the main players in the field of social business in the Brazilian South and Southeast regions; and (c) to develop an analytical framework with the main analysis dimensions, contributing and limiting factor. It was a two phases exploratory research, qualitative with a direct approach, with descriptive-interpretative analysis. On the first phase, the focus was on a documental research, on the second, the focus was on thirty-six semi-structured interviews with the main players in the field – entrepreneurs, their teams, and supporting organizations. The collected data processed according to the content analysis technique, and the results are presented in descriptive format, being sintetized in the analytical framework. The result were eight contributing factors and eighteen limiting factors, spread across five analytical dimensions.