Networking and Diversity Management As Factors Affecting Successful Social Enterprise

Background

Social enterprises that pursue social and economic aims have been challenging in gaining success in the competitive and rapidly changing business environment. There are two core factors that play a role in leading success in social enterprise: networking and diversity management. Social enterprises gain financial, technical and management supports through the networking activities (Lee, 2009). As diversity has been increasing in the society, diversity management has increasingly become an important issue in governing profit and non-profit organizations (Mor Barak, 2013). However, there is scarce knowledge on the role of networking and diversity management in leading successful social enterprise. In response to this research gap, this study examined networking and diversity management affecting successful social enterprise by interviewing top management team and employees in social enterprises.

Methods

Top management team and employees in social enterprises in an urban region of California were recruited for semi-structural interviews. Contact information on social enterprises and top management team were gathered from online search. Then, an email including the information on study and interview process was sent to top management team to recruit. They were asked to participate in a semi-structured interview and select an employee to be participated in a separate interview. Twenty emails were originally sent to top management teams in social enterprises and seven of them agreed to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews and a short survey to collect demographic and work-related information were conducted. Participants were asked to complete a short questionnaire before an interview begins. Then, interviews were conducted for 60 - 90 minutes. Finally, eight top management team members and seven employees were interviewed for this study. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was performed using NVivo 10.0.

Results

All participants agreed with the important role of networking and diversity management in achieving success in social enterprises. The findings revealed both CEOs and workers identified networking is a core component to create successful social enterprise, which in turn promote sustainability of social enterprise. Considerable networking efforts including attending relevant conferences and creating events were implemented and its positive impact was found. Regarding diversity management, all respondents have recognized the need to improve diversity in their organizations, while some did not implement diversity in top management team and board regardless of the awareness.

Discussions and Conclusion

The current study offers qualitative evidence on the role of networking and diversity management in leading successful social enterprise. Findings suggest that social entrepreneurs consider networking an important activity to achieve success in their organizations. Social entrepreneurs can make efforts to connect with various stakeholders including other social entrepreneurs, consumers and government officials. The findings indicate that diversity in the organizations should be increased based on the belief that diversity have a positive impact on performance. The diversity can be related to gender, race/ethnicity, age and other characteristics. For future research, there is a need to examine the effects of networking and diversity management on social and economic performance in social enterprises using quantitative data.