Organizational Capacity, Community Asset Mobilization, and Performance of Korean Social Enterprises*

Abstract

This paper develops an integrative analysis framework for assessing the performance of social enterprises in Korea in the context of combined organizational and environmental factors that provide positive feedback. We surveyed 120 social enterprises in Korea and analyzed the relationships between organizational capacity, community asset mobilization, and performance of those social enterprises. The analysis showed that organizational capacity and community asset mobilization influenced performance in different ways. In addition, management capacity emerged as the most important mediating variable of the organizational capacities, and the mobilization of the community assets of social enterprises contributed to improving their social performance. Finally, strategic leadership contributed to mobilizing the community assets of social enterprises. However, community asset mobilization had negative effects on economic performance. Important lessons for policy makers and future research directions are drawn from these results.