Clodia Vurro

Social Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Social Change Across Theory and Practice

Companies and nonprofits, regardless of the sector they belong to, their dimension or their geographical location, are increasingly asked to provide innovative solutions to manage complex social problems: from community development to social exclusion and poverty reduction (Margolis and Walsh, 2003). Social entrepreneurship (SE), an unusual contact point among entrepreneurship, innovation and social change, has been increasingly catalyzing the interest of academics, companies, and the business debate for about a decade. Attention is expanding exponentially with a multiplicity of publications, MBA core and elective courses and academic research centers explicitly focused on deep analysis of the SE phenomenon. There are also numerous innovative and supportive actors such as specialized consulting groups, social venture capitalists, social angels and so on.

A process-based view of social entrepreneurship: from opportunity identification to scaling-up social change in the case of San Patrignano

The assumption of a strong connection between entrepreneurship and economic growth has led to the neglect of entrepreneurial processes in the social sectors. Based on the findings of an in-depth longitudinal case study, our article focuses on social entrepreneurship (SE) processes designed to exploit innovation that explicitly addresses complex social problems. We elaborate on the characteristics of the process and on the dimensions intervening on how social entrepreneurial opportunities are identified, evaluated, exploited and scaled up. We provide a process-based view of SE, suggesting the need for consistency between individual, organizational and contextual elements.

Making the most of corporate social responsibility reporting: disclosure structure and its impact on performance

Purpose – Examining a three‐year disclosure experience of a sample of Fortune 100 global companies, the paper aims to propose and test a model that relates the structure of CSR disclosure to corporate social performance. Based on the results obtained, it proposes to draw implications for emerging economies.Design/methodology/approach – Combining content analysis of CSR reports and corporate social performance data, the paper built a longitudinal dataset starting from the population of worldwide companies included in the AccountAbility Rating between 2004 and 2007. Longitudinal regression analysis is performed on a final sample size of 114 firm‐year observations involving 38 firms over a three‐year period.Findings – The paper finds evidence that the level of disclosure does not improve firm ability to manage stakeholders. However, a finer‐grained analysis of the structure of disclosure shows that better social performers are those who increased the breadth of their disclosure to stakeholders and uniformly ...

Managing Succession in Social Enterprises. The Case of San Patrignano.

The article aims at extending theory on succession in social enterprises as hybrid organizational forms by building upon the family business literature and by analyzing a longitudinal case study. Despite the relevance of succession in mission-driven organizations, the literature on founder and leader transition is scant. The topic is most frequently researched in the family business literature. Addressing the need of extending research on this kind of organizations, we analyze the case study of the San Patrignano Community, a hybrid non profit organization and one of the largest drug rehabilitation communities in the world. The in-depth case study analysis – highlighting how the community is handling this transition and the succession process from the foundation family (Muccioli) to a more professionalized management team – aims to contribute to the literature on leadership succession in social enterprises, taking into account their specificities. A dynamic and systemic analytical model is defined and rec...

Developing an Interactive Model of Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship (SE) has emerged as an important field of inquiry, spanning boundary lines across different disciplines, from social issues in management to entrepreneurship and strategic management. Over time, research and public policy-makers have come to believe that SE offers creative and innovative solutions to complex and persistent social problems through the adoption and implementation of entrepreneurial models of new venture creation.