Implementation of a social mission in social enterprise: fit among content, motivation and practice

Abstract

A mission statement is commonly considered a strategic tool in any organisation. While hybridity is what characterises the mission in a social enterprise, the centrality of the social component of the mission over the economic component is generally acknowledged. Only few investigations focus on achievement of social component of a mission. To close this gap, this study takes a configurational approach and empirically analyses 143 social enterprises using qualitative comparative analysis. We find that irrespective of the organisational form, SE companies should align the formal (content), motivational (stakeholder motivation) and dynamic (organizational practice) perspectives of their mission, fostering the fit among these three in order to fulfil a desired social impact. The simultaneous absence of (1) fit between mission content and organizational practice and (2) fit between mission content and stakeholder motivation was found to go in hand with social mission non-achievement. The results are consistent among different organisational forms, albeit, for different reasons.