Requirements of Scaling International Social Enterprises

Abstract

Objective: The paper aims to identify the requirements for social enterprise to scale internationally. The explicit research objective is to explain which requirements enable to scale social ventures internationally with success. Research Design & Methods: The study employs multiple case study analysis based on systematic literature review used to identify papers examining international social enterprises. At total six cases were analysed using criteria of organisational capabilities included in the SCALERS model. Findings: The analysis showed that the most significant for scaling social enterprises internationally are: earnings-generation and alliance building; next staffing, communicating, and replicating. The less significant are lobbing and stimulating market forces. Implications & Recommendations: Existence of strong business model, neutral from market sources, well-resourced, recognised in public sphere associated with scaling up. Contribution & Value Added: The paper contributes by revealing that capabilities for ISEs scaling are differentiated in terms of their significance. Presented results go along with the observation that prior to scaling social impact basic operational model must show its viability.

Keywords

• social entrepreneurship
• internationalization
• scaling
• SCALERS