TY - CHAP A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Rathert, Nikolas ED - Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo ED - Windeler, Arnold ED - Blättel-Mink, Birgit T1 - Social Entrepreneurship T2 - Handbook of Innovation N2 - Social entrepreneurship refers to the innovative use and combination of resources to address social problems and needs. Social entrepreneurship and social enterprises constitute an increasingly relevant form of organizing across different contexts, reflected in growing interest from policymakers in Europe and beyond. We provide an overview of definitional debates around social entrepreneurship and focus on institutional change and the pursuit of multiple goals as key characteristics of social entrepreneurship. These characteristics set social entrepreneurship apart from commercial entrepreneurship focused on providing products and services but also create unique challenges. On the one hand, as research on social entrepreneurship and institutional change has shown, social entrepreneurship involves the consideration of the context-specific nature of social problems and social innovations. In addition, scholarship on social entrepreneurship and the pursuit of multiple goals emphasizes a set of resulting demands on organizational governance, including ensuring accountability and acquiring resources while straddling diverse institutional contexts. Interrogating the existing literature in management, organization, and entrepreneurship studies on these aspects, our discussion offers a succinct and generative perspective on social entrepreneurship that helps to advance the study of social innovation. Y1 - 2025 SN - 978-3-031-25143-6 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25143-6_25-1 PB - Springer Nature Switzerland AG CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Seelos, Christian A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Traeger, Charlotte A1 - Nolting, Fenja ED - Dorado, Silvia ED - Haugh, Helen ED - Wadhwani, R. Daniel ED - Hamann, Ralph T1 - Advancing Phenomenon-Based Research on Complex Societal Challenges: The Case of Homelessness T2 - Big Picture Approaches to the Impact of Social Innovations N2 - We advance organizational research on complex societal challenges and showcase the relevance of a system perspective to analyze organized efforts to address homelessness as a social problem. We adopt a phenomenon-based approach to theorizing and generate plausible explanations by analyzing historical accounts of decisions and actions taken to tackle homelessness by various actors across different sectors in the United States between 1960 and 2021. We apply an analytical scaffolding proposed by Mair and Seelos (2021) to examine how organizations intervene in social systems and explicate the causal, situation, and problem realms of homelessness. Attending to these three realms helps to reveal how homelessness was problematized differently over time and to examine how different causal assumptions shaped organizational decisions about developing and scaling solutions to homelessness. Based on our analysis, we develop a series of propositions that capture contextualized insights on the characteristics and consequences of efforts to address homelessness, accounting for linkages between the causal, situation, and problem realms of homelessness. Finally, our analytical and theoretical approach helps uncover the interconnectedness of scaling and scale, providing valuable insights for theory and policy. Y1 - 2025 SN - 978-1-83608-528-7 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/s0733-558x20250000096002 VL - 96 SP - 25 EP - 50 PB - Emerald Publishing Limited ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Seelos, Christian A1 - Sofer, Miki A1 - Burton, Caitlin A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - Making Health Innovations Thrive in Africa T2 - Stanford Social Innovation Review N2 - Many hurdles stand in the way of successful innovation. The case of Zipline, an autonomous drone delivery platform, demonstrates many of the pitfalls of the dominant modes of development in Africa, along with some potential solutions. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.48558/XCTW-2515 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Lechterman, Theodore A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - The Societal Role of Social Entrepreneurship T2 - Stanford Social Innovation Review Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.48558/G78A-J256 ER - TY - EDBOOK A1 - Wieser, Thomas A1 - Mair, Johanna ED - Wieser, Thomas ED - Mair, Johanna T1 - Lehren aus Europa: 22 Essays zur Zukunft unseres Kontinents Y1 - 2024 SN - 978-3-903461-05-5 PB - Verlag CSV ER - TY - EDBOOK A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Wieser, Thomas ED - Mair, Johanna ED - Wieser, Thomas T1 - Lessons from Europe: 22 Essays on the Future of Our Continent Y1 - 2024 SN - 9783903461062 PB - Verlag CSV ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chua, Nathania A1 - Miska, Christof A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Stahl, Günther K. T1 - Purpose in Management Research: Navigating a Complex and Fragmented Area of Study JF - Academy of Management Annals N2 - Management research on “purpose” is dispersed. This is because scholars apply different perspectives on purpose, each associated with distinct approaches to its study. We find that one perspective views purpose as embedded in the business–society context or as embodied within organizations. A second perspective looks at the purpose of the organization and its purpose to specific stakeholders. We reviewed management literature on purpose conducted over the past two decades to unearth this fragmentation further and uncover possibilities for integration. We identify four themes that anchor the disjointed literature: identity, performance, objectives, and change. In addition, we organize the literature across six dimensions of purpose as a concept. Each dimension surfaces existing dichotomies in research: property, scope, stability, materiality, motive, and rationality. Both the anchoring themes and conceptual dimensions establish the groundwork for a programmatic agenda for future research, aimed to support purpose research as a distinct area of study in management. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2022.0186 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 755 EP - 787 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lechterman, Theodore M. A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - Social Enterprises as Agents of Social Justice: A Rawlsian perspective on institutional capacity JF - Organization Studies N2 - Many scholars of organizations see social enterprise as a promising approach to advancing social justice but neglect to scrutinize the normative foundations and limitations of this optimism. This article draws on Rawlsian political philosophy to investigate whether and how social enterprises can support social justice. We propose that this perspective assigns organizations a duty to foster institutional capacity, a concept we define and elaborate. We investigate how this duty might apply specifically to social enterprises, given their characteristic features. We theorize six different mechanisms through which social enterprises might successfully discharge this duty. These results affirm the value of conversation between organizational studies and political philosophy and shed new light on debates regarding social enterprise, institutional theory, and several other topics. KW - social enterprise, social justice, institutional capacity, strong institutions, political philosophy, John Rawls Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406241261435 VL - 45 IS - 9 SP - 1301 EP - 1323 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Rathert, Nikolas T1 - The Political Side of Social Enterprises: A Phenomenon-Based Study of Sociocultural and Policy Advocacy JF - Journal of Management Studies N2 - This study explores the often-overlooked political dimension of social enterprises, particularly their advocacy activities aimed at influencing public policy, legislation, norms, attitudes, and behaviour. While traditional management research has focused on commercial activity and the beneficiary-oriented aspects of social enterprises, this paper considers their upstream political activity. Using a phenomenon-based approach, we analyse original survey data from 718 social enterprises across seven countries and six problem domains to identify factors associated with their engagement in advocacy. Our findings reveal that public spending and competition in social enterprises’ problem domains, as well as their governance choices – legal form, sources of income, and collaborations – are significantly associated with advocacy activities. We propose a new theoretical framework to understand these dynamics, positioning social enterprises as key players in markets for public purpose. This research underscores the importance of recognizing the political activities of social enterprises and offers new insights for studying hybrid organizing and organizations that address complex societal challenges. By highlighting the integral role of advocacy, our study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of how social enterprises drive social change, not only through direct service provision but also by shaping the broader sociopolitical environment. KW - advocacy, social enterprises, phenomenon-based inquiry, hybridity, social problems Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13134 N1 - Open Access publication is funded by the Hertie School Library. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kourula, Arno A1 - Georgallis, Panikos A1 - Henriques, Irene A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - Introduction to the Special Issue on the Role of Place in Sustainability: Key Trends and Agenda for Future Research JF - Organization & Environment N2 - This editorial reviews key themes, trends, and assumptions of organizational research on place and sustainability and introduces the special issue on the “Role of Place in Sustainability.” While recent theorizing has often emphasized global issues such as grand challenges, planetary boundaries, and climate change, this special issue revisits the local by focusing on the role of place in sustainability. We discuss trends and subdomains of research on place and sustainability and identify key assumptions at the interplay between global and local perspectives. Instead of advocating for universal solutions or exclusively context-specific approaches, we highlight the concept of “senses of place,” emphasizing the connections among diverse notions of place and intrinsic links to these locations. We demonstrate how the four insightful articles featured in this special issue provide a broader dialogue on place and sustainability. Finally, we outline a research agenda that identifies underexplored themes in place-based sustainability studies. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/10860266241283157 VL - 37 IS - 3 SP - 363 EP - 375 ER -