Social Enterprises and the Performance Advantages of a Vincentian Marketing Orientation

Abstract

This study focuses on the managerial issue of should social enterprises become more marketing oriented. Its adapts the Kohli, Jaworski and Kumar (1993) MARKOR marketing orientation scale to measure the adoption of marketing by social enterprises. The items capture Vincentian based values to leverage business in service to the poor as a measure of a Vincentian marketing orientation (VMO). An VMO is an organisational wide value-driven philosophy of management that focuses a social enterprise on meeting its objectives by adopting a more marketing orientated approach to serving the needy and poor, and doing so in a just, and sustainable manner. Social enterprises that exhibit a VMO seek to understand and respond to both the needs of their beneficiaries and their stakeholders. They are constantly generating, disseminating, and responding to environmental, beneficiary and stakeholder information and develop their business propositions to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the poor while guided by a philosophy of leveraging business for social good. This study of social enterprises in Australia found that a VMO is strongly and positively correlated with social, economic, and environmental performance. These findings suggest that social enterprises may benefit by leveraging marketing capabilities to better serve their beneficiaries and stakeholders. KEYWORDSEconomic and social performance measures for social enterprises, marketing orientation, value based marketing.3 Social Enterprises and the Performance Advantages of a Vincentian Marketing Orientation"Vincent saw his business dealings as a public trust. Managers trained in the Vincentian tradition must not only keep their eye on the profit line but on the effects their company policies have on the marginalized of society," (Bowes 1998(Bowes : 1666.Social enterprises (SE) are organizations with an overarching core social mission funded through market-based initiatives (see Kerlin 2006). They exist to serve their beneficiaries and are increasingly being relied upon to provide essential social services as government services decline. For example, in the United Kingdom (UK), Bennett (2008) reports that voluntary organizations and social enterprises have become major providers of numerous social welfare services that were previously supplied by the state. Similar conditions exist for social services in most nations, and in many cases some form of social enterprise is attempting to "fill the gaps" left as government social services decline.Social enterprises are hybrid organizations established for a social purpose, using a for-profit business model to generate the financial resources needed to support their social mission. As unmet social needs become more critical, social enterprises are seeking to become more efficient and effective in their operations and strategies to fulfil their mission. Adding to the complexity, social enterprises are often evaluated by their stakeholders from a multiple bottom line perspective -that is how the social enter...

The Manifestation of Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Social Entrepreneurship Context

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How Social Entrepreneurs Affect Performance of Social Enterprises in Korea: The Mediating Effect of Innovativeness

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“…A self-reporting questionnaire was used in this study based on previous surveys. Many research studies on social entrepreneurship and behavioral characteristics of social entrepreneurs have used self-reporting questionnaires [22,25,47,49,52].…”

Does diversity matter? exploring workforce diversity, diversity management, and organizational performance in social enterprises

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