The nonprofit sector is increasingly engaged in social enterprise, which involves a combination and balancing of social mission and business goals which can cause mission drift or mission tension. A work integrated social enterprise (WISE) is a specific type of social enterprise that focuses on integrating hard-to-employ individuals, such as ex offenders, back into the workforce, usually through producing goods or offering services. Little is known about how WISE organizations manage mission drift, particularly given the unique characteristics of this type of organization. Using institutional values theory and resource dependence theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore how a WISE in Indiana experience and manage mission drift and mission tension. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 4 board members and 4 staff persons, and from organizational documents. All data were inductively coded and subjected to a constant, comparative analysis between empirical and predictive themes. The study revealed the organization has not experienced mission drift or mission tension because, (a) there was a strong mission and a commitment by the board and staff to the mission, (b) there was a constant balancing act between mission and income, (c) business goals aligned with mission, and (d) operating systems were in place for mission sustainability. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include providing beneficial information about best practices and strategies to other organizations seeking to develop WISE programs that provide opportunities and training for difficult to employ populations.

Critics argue that there has been a trend among Microfinance Institutions (MFI) to focus on profitability in order to stay financially sustainable. This made some institutions neglect the social mission of microfinancing. In this paper I intend to examine if empirical evidence supports this so called mission drift hypothesis as well as other claims in this context. Using the global panel data set of the MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange), which gathers from 1995 to 2010 and contains up to 1400 institutions with a high variety of organizational forms, I was able to identify a world-wide mission drift effect in their social goal of reaching out the poorest part of the population. Furthermore, I find that, on average, the outreach of an MFI has a significant negative influence on its short and long term financial performance. Despite that, I eventually proved that the probability that an MFI worsens its social performance substantially increases if its profitability has decreased in the previous years. / Das Konzept der Mikrofinanzierung wurde, insbesondere im Zuge der Mikrofinanzkrisen in Asien und Südamerika zunehmend kritisiert. Dabei stand vor allem die Kommerzialisierung der Branche im Zentrum der Kritik. In dieser Studie soll daher unter anderem die sogenannte „Mission Drifts”-These also dass das eigentliche Ziel des Mikrokreditwesen aus den Augen verloren wurde, empirisch überprüft werden. Mit Hilfe des Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Datensatzes, wurden Paneldaten von bis zu 1.400 Kreditinstitutionen, mit unterschiedlichen (Rechts-)formen, aus den Jahren 1995 bis 2010 ausgewertet. Die Regressionsanalyse hat gezeigt, dass Profitablität in der Tat einen negativen Einfluss auf das Ziel hat, möglichst arme Menschen zu erreichen. Auch der Trade-off zwischen der Reichweite von Mikrokrediten und kurzfristiger sowie langfristiger Profitabilität konnte nachgewiesen werden. Die Daten zeigten aber auch, dass Mikrofinanzinstitution dazu tendieren soziale Ziele zu vernachlässigen, wenn es im vergangenen Geschäftsjahr finanziell bergab ging.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-08-06T14:45:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Elisângela Marlize Dalpiaz de Azeredo_.pdf: 1506700 bytes, checksum: 0a85bcb1bedded10aaf79f106d4afee8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T14:45:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elisângela Marlize Dalpiaz de Azeredo_.pdf: 1506700 bytes, checksum: 0a85bcb1bedded10aaf79f106d4afee8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-27 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O interesse pelos negócios de impacto social vem crescendo nas últimas décadas, tendo em vista que estes negócios representam uma fonte promissora de geração de valor social, econômico e financeiro. Entretanto, ao aliarem criação de valor social e sustentabilidade financeira, combinam elementos provenientes de lógicas institucionais diferentes, podendo enfrentar desafios inerentes a esta junção. Desta forma, a fim de que estes negócios obtenham êxito, faz-se necessário o desenvolvimento de um ecossistema de suporte robusto. Dentre os atores do ecossistema, destacam-se as aceleradoras, que visam apoiar o crescimento destes negócios, na fase inicial ou de expansão, exercendo, desta forma, um papel importante na construção e desenvolvimento das lógicas institucionais nestes negócios. Por consequência, influenciam a forma pela qual evitam mission drift, fenômeno que consiste no distanciamento do negócio da sua missão social. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste estudo é analisar as estratégias utilizadas pelas aceleradoras para assegurar e monitorar que os negócios de impacto mantenham a lógica híbrida, alcançando o equilíbrio entre a criação de valor social e a sustentabilidade financeira, evitando mission drift. A fim de atingir o objetivo proposto, foi realizado um estudo de caso múltiplo, com quatro aceleradoras, que atuam com negócios de impacto social. Por meio da compreensão do papel que exercem na manutenção da lógica híbrida dos negócios impulsionados por elas, identificaram-se as fontes de mission drift, bem como as estratégias para evitar o fenômeno durante o programa de aceleração, contribuindo, desta forma, com o campo teórico e gerencial. As implicações teóricas do estudo consistem na identificação da influência que as aceleradoras exercem nos negócios de impacto impulsionados por elas, por meio das estratégias utilizadas para assegurar a manutenção da lógica híbrida, contribuindo tanto para o estudo das lógicas institucionais quanto do fenômeno mission drift. No que tange às contribuições gerenciais, fornece um conjunto de estratégias a serem utilizadas pelas aceleradoras, a fim de assegurar e monitorar a manutenção do equilíbrio entre a criação de valor social e a sustentabilidade financeira nos negócios que aceleram. / The interest by the social enterprises has been growing in recent decades, considering that these organizations represent a promising source for generating social, economic and financial value. However, as they ally social value creation and financial sustainability, they combine elements from different institutional logics and may face challenges inherent to this combination. In this way, in order that these organizations achieve success, it is necessary to develop a robust support ecosystem. Among the actors of the ecosystem, the accelerators stand out. They aim to support the growth of social enterprises at an early stage or an expansion stage, exercising, in this way, an important role in the construction and development of institutional logics in these organizations. Consequently, they influence the way in which them avoid mission drift, a phenomenon that consists in the detachment of a business from its social mission. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the strategies used by the accelerators to ensure and to monitor that the social enterprises maintain the hybrid logic, achieving the balance between the creation of social value and financial sustainability, avoiding mission drift. In order to achieve the proposed objective, it was conducted a multiple case study, with four accelerators, working with social enterprises. The sources of mission drift, as well as the strategies to avoid the phenomenon during the acceleration were identified through the understanding of the role that the accelerators exercise in maintaining the hybrid business logic in the business fueled by them, contributing, in this way, with the theoretical and managerial field. The theoretical implications of the study consist in the identification of the influence that the accelerators exert over the social enterprises boosted by them, through the strategies used to ensure the maintenance of the hybrid logic, contributing to the study of institutional logics as well as to the phenomenon of mission drift. Regarding the managerial contributions, the study provides a set of strategies to be used by the accelerators, in order to ensure and monitor the maintenance of the balance between the creation of social value and the financial sustainability in the business accelerated by them.

In 2009 the Texas legislature created the National Research University Fund (NRUF), intended to encourage a select group of public doctoral universities in the state, known as emerging research universities (ERUs), to increase their institutional status related to academic research by awarding supplemental financial support for meeting specific policy metrics. Efforts to increase the research status of these universities occurred at a time when public financial support remained stagnate and overall institutional costs increased within the higher education sector. This study utilizes a theoretical approach grounded in strategic action fields and employs panel data and a difference in differences statistical technique to analyze the impact that NRUF policy has in assisting ERUs in achieving R1 status, and how this organizational change impacted access to, and the quality of, undergraduate education. Results indicate that the NRUF policy intervention was not statistically significant for any part of the study. These findings suggest that policy interventions do not matter as much as specific institutional characteristics and the overall policy environment. Enrollment and tuition revenue predicted institutional performance related to academic research and graduate education, while also assisting these institutions in maintaining undergraduate academic quality and access. These cultural and material resources at the institutional level matter, as does how the overall state field prioritizes various aspects of higher education. Given the amount of resources required of the policy, and the general lack of evidence of its positive or negative effects, these indicate that those resources would be more wisely targeted elsewhere.

The thesis empirically examined the implications of microfinance scaling up or sustainability on outreach in Nigeria. Basically, two methodologies were used namely, panel data econometric and survey methods. The panel dataset of 752 microfinance banks in Nigeria was used during the period 2011-2014, while the survey was conducted on some selected microfinance banks in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in 2014. The findings from the thesis showed that, at the national level, yield, labour cost, orientation, efficiency, gender and size of loans are the major drivers of microfinance banks‟ sustainability in Nigeria. While at the state level, microfinance banks sustainability is driven by orientation and loan size. Findings also showed that sustainable MFBs tend to be more focused on the poor clients. The thesis showed that lending to female clients improves repayment rate of MFBs in Nigeria. Corroborating the regression result, the survey findings also suggest that lending to women had improved and enhanced repayment rate. In view of these findings, the thesis recommends that sustainability and outreach are not necessarily incompatible. However in pursuing sustainability greater attention should be on female clients, as greater lending to women would improve the repayment rate of MFBs and further engendered the industry sustainability.

Microfinance is a relatively young and somewhat ambiguous concept. The phenomenon has, however, proven to contribute to making the lives better for many poor people, thus the interest for the industry has grown substantially. The increased attention has stimulated the movement towards more financially sustainable organizations. Along with this transformation, concerns regarding how it affects the poor have been raised. This study aims to map the key characteristics of financially sustainable microfinance institutions (MFIs) and what features that separates them from their non-sustainable counterparts. By analyzing data from 1109 MFIs, some significant differences between sustainable and non-sustainable organizations have been found. The study shows that for-profit MFIs are self-sufficient to a greater extent than the non-sufficient ones, which might be caused by the pressure to deliver value to shareholders. Furthermore, there are indications that self-sufficient MFIs are more efficient, which can be assumed to be caused by technological advantages, or different lending methods. The findings on outreach are somewhat contradictory; sustainable MFIs are reaching more clients on average, which discards a mission drift. On the other hand, self-sufficient MFIs have larger average loan sizes and less female borrowers, two indications that a mission drift actual exists. Self-sufficient MFIs have also proven to have lower loan loss rates and lower yields on loan portfolio. Positive findings, as they indicate that the MFIs have sound loan portfolios and that they have managed to become self-sustainable not by exploiting the poor, but by reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Financial sustainability can therefore be assumed to be achieved without forsaking the poor, if the social aims of the organizations are consistent with the financial objectives.

The thesis empirically examined the implications of microfinance scaling up or sustainability on outreach in Nigeria. Basically, two methodologies were used namely, panel data econometric and survey methods. The panel dataset of 752 microfinance banks in Nigeria was used during the period 2011-2014, while the survey was conducted on some selected microfinance banks in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in 2014. The findings from the thesis showed that, at the national level, yield, labour cost, orientation, efficiency, gender and size of loans are the major drivers of microfinance banks‟ sustainability in Nigeria. While at the state level, microfinance banks sustainability is driven by orientation and loan size. Findings also showed that sustainable MFBs tend to be more focused on the poor clients. The thesis showed that lending to female clients improves repayment rate of MFBs in Nigeria. Corroborating the regression result, the survey findings also suggest that lending to women had improved and enhanced repayment rate. In view of these findings, the thesis recommends that sustainability and outreach are not necessarily incompatible. However in pursuing sustainability greater attention should be on female clients, as greater lending to women would improve the repayment rate of MFBs and further engendered the industry sustainability.

Microfinance is a development tool used to reduce poverty among extremely poor households. Impoverished households can access lines of credit through microfinance institutions (MFIs), in order to create a new business, smooth household consumption, fund medical emergencies, etc. Many authors postulate that MFIs are drifting from a welfarist to an institutionalist approach to lending. Using MIXMarket data on specific MFIs in 118 countries between 1995 and 2011, the average loan balance of these organizations will be regressed against measure of outreach and sustainability of these institutions by charter type through a series of four, fixed effects models. The main research question is: given that a positive, overall shift in average loan balance indicates an institutionalist shift in mission, how does this impact microfinance institutions and the demographics they target on the intensive and extensive margins? These analyses will test the theory that MFIs with larger average loan balances serve households closer to the subsistence poverty level, a manifestation of mission drift toward the institutionalist philosophy of lending. The phenomenon of mission drift directly impacts the outcomes of microfinance institutions and the target demographic of the organization. The results of this study indicate that the mission of these organizations is drifting toward the institutionalist philosophy of lending. With this general result, mission drift can be observed within both the internal and external margins of the microfinance industry, which influences the chosen target market, profit generated, and structure of MFIs, as determined by the mission of the organization.

Cette thèse est composée de quatre chapitres. Le chapitre 1 analyse comment les différentes interventions publiques impactent l'octroi des microcrédits. Nous montrons que la garantie des prêts peut avoir un effet contreproductif en réduisant le nombre d'entrepreneurs bénéficiant de l'accompagnement offert par l'Institution de Microfinance (IMF). Alternativement, nous montrons que les subventions visant l'accompagnement peuvent être plus efficaces relativement à la garantie des prêts.Le chapitre 2 étudie comment les décisions d'une IMF concernant l'accompagnement peuvent impacter le comportement des emprunteurs. Nous montrons que l'asymétrie d'information renversée peut conduire à une relation non-monotone entre le type de l'emprunteur et l'offre de l'accompagnement. Cet équilibre apparaît suite à l'effet "soi-miroir". Notre modèle probit bivarié confirme l'existence d'un tel équilibre.Le chapitre 3 s'intéresse aux seuils de crédit imposés aux IMFs. Nous montrons que les seuils de crédit peuvent générer l'éloignement de la mission en facilitant le co-financement avec les banques classiques des projets les plus larges au détriment des projets les plus petits. Notre modèle probit différence-en-différences confirme l'existence de cet effet pervers à partir des données d'une IMF française.Le chapitre 4 compare les prêts octroyés aux entrepreneurs hommes et femmes par une IMF française avant et après l'introduction du seuil de crédit. Nous montrons que, sans le seuil, l'IMF choisit les femmes avec les demandes de crédit les plus élevées. Cependant, cela n'est plus le cas après l'introduction du seuil de crédits qui détériore la situation des entrepreneurs femmes. / This thesis is organized in four chapters.Chapter 1 theoretically analyses how various forms of state intervention impact microfinance institutions' (MFIs') lending behavior. We show that loan guarantees can have a counterproductive effect on financial inclusion triggered by unsubsidized business development services (BDS). Alternatively, we show that, BDS subsidization can do better in terms of financial inclusion than the loan guarantee. Chapter 2 analyses how decisions of an MFI on BDS provision can impact borrowers' behavior. We show that, reversed asymmetric information can lead to a non monotonic relationship between borrowers' type and assignment to BDS. In this equilibrium the MFI does not train the lowest and the highest type borrowers. This relationship occurs due to the "looking-glass self" effect. Our empirical bivariate probit model confirms the existence of such equilibrium. Chapter 3 tackles the issue of loan ceilings imposed to MFIs. We show that loan ceilings can trigger mission drift by facilitating the co-financing of large projects with regular banks at the expense of small projects. We test this prediction by exploiting the natural experiment of a French MFI. Difference-in-differences probit estimations show that the risk of the mission drift is real.Chapter 4 compares the loans granted to male and female entrepreneurs by a French MFI before and after the enforcement of the loan ceiling. We find that the ceiling free MFI selected women with larger requested amounts. However, under ceiling enforcement this was no longer the case, suggesting that female entrepreneurs are worse off after ceiling enforcement.

Background: Rising global uncertainty and volatility have changed how businesses envision themselves and their future. Particularly Social Business Hybrids emphasize the importance of purpose beyond profit. Their aim is to develop a more inclusive and green economy by pursuing and creating both financial and social value. This aim, however, comes with the risk of mission drift, meaning that the organization could prioritize one value at the expense of the other. As this is an emergent strategic dilemma in the field of social entrepreneurship, it is prudent to find ways to manage the risk of mission drift. In this context, considerable attention has to be given to the question of how employees of Social Business Hybrids manage the risk of mission drift, as their viewpoint has mostly been neglected by prior scholarship. Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to provide an understanding of why the management of mission drift is relevant for Social Business Hybrids and to give new insights into perspectives that employees of Social Business Hybrids have towards tactics and strategies that support successful management of mission drift. By researching the critical role that employees play as stakeholders in the context of mission drift management, we aim to enrich current literature by deriving new insights into strategies that can help Social Business Hybrids successfully balance their dual objectives. Method: This study is based on: Qualitative, inductive research; Ontology – Relativism; Epistemology – Social Constructionism; Methodology – Grounded Theory; Data Collection – 12 semi-structured in-depth Interviews; Sampling – Purposive, Snowball; Data Analysis – Grounded Analysis  Conclusion: In our findings, we ascertained distinct sources that anticipate a risk for mission drift. Further, we identified detailed tactics that can significantly support the management of mission drift. Finally, resulting from the findings, a framework was developed, that proposes five distinctive overarching strategies, which are enabled by two underlying mechanisms that employees in Social Business Hybrids apply to manage mission drift.