Align or perish
Research Paper Title:
“Align or perish: Social enterprise network orchestration in Sub-Saharan Africa”
Authors:
Christian Busch (NYU)
Harry Barkema (London School of Economics)
Background:
Professors Christian Busch and Harry Barkema studied social entrepreneurs in Kenya for over a decade, aiming to explore what made some succeed while others did not. They identified four mechanisms that help explain how and why particular network strategies were related to success or liquidation. All successful ventures supported sustainable income streams for stakeholders, for example, via guaranteed purchase of products, price guarantees, or by providing lifelong assets.
Methodology:
Sample: Social enterprises headquartered in Kenya/active in the agri-sector
Sample Size: Six
Analytical Approach: Comparative case study
Results:
Unlike large NGOs, young social ventures not only have to bridge into the respective social context, but also need to overcome their liability of newness in creative ways. For example, in order to develop trust and legitimacy, successful ventures had their local representatives and partners make frequent public commitments in front of local villagers, and then delivered on them. Successful social ventures found creative ways to dis-embed from local unproductive ties while still creating value. For example, by involving effective family members in the organization, based on merit, while creating opportunities for ineffective family members outside the venture (in an accountability structure), avoiding nepotism. Successful social ventures found creative ways to say “no” to favors, for example, by integrating people that had asked for handouts into their value chain instead of giving them handouts. The successful ventures supported the creation of new markets, for example, by facilitating deals with crowdsourcing platforms that funded farmers. To develop a strong ecosystem, successful social ventures realigned incentives between their objectives and the interests of key stakeholders such as farmers and cooperatives. Creative approaches included layering their products on top of international organizations' value chains, helping them scale while enabling their international partners to increase their local legitimacy and image. All ultimately successful ventures supported sustainable income streams for stakeholders, for example, via guaranteed purchase of products, price guarantees, or by providing lifelong assets
Conclusion:
By dynamically adjusting their networks over time, social ventures can successfully scale up in the Sub-Saharan African emerging economy context.