Institutionalization in organizational form of social entrepreneurship: Cases from China and Bangladesh

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has attracted attention of many scholars from the novel concurrent combination of nonprofit and for-profit organizational activity. Traditionally, institutional environment is thought to constrain managerial choices and thus to reduce organizational uncertainty. However, this concurrent mission instead creates institutional ambiguity in the choice of organizational form as a result of competing perceived isomorphic pressures. Through cases of Cherished Dream China Education Foundation and Grameen Bank, this paper derives propositions as to how the social entrepreneur's internal motivation and perceived institutions with respect to sources of funding, stakeholder alignment, and government policy shape the organizational form of social entrepreneurial enterprises.