Purpose
Cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) are one type of collective social enterprise that has gained importance as a vehicle for social innovation (SI). The purpose of this paper is to understand ...the sources of the competitive advantage of CSPs as a strategic option for SI.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a conceptual framework that integrates two interrelated dimensions of CSP competitiveness – resources and coordination – and their corresponding indicators. Then, the authors apply it to an in-depth case study through qualitative enquiry of a large CSP in the field of work integration during its formation and implementation stages (2012–2016). The authors employ a case study design with process tracing methods for increased validity, analyzing structured data from multiple sources (documentary, in-depth interviews with field experts and key decision-makers in coordinating partner organizations, direct observations) through narrative and visual mapping strategies.
Findings
Results illustrate the dynamic interaction between the key dimensions and factors that shape the potential and limitations of CSPs for SI and evidence three types of tensions which management influences partnership outcomes: hierarchical/horizontal commitment; competition/collaboration; and managerial efficiency/social transformation.
Originality/value
This research highlights the pivotal role of product development for the organizing of SI in a CSP context and proposes a conceptual framework that paves the way for future research on the sources of competitive advantage of CSPs, facilitating the assessment of their performance in terms of socially innovative outcomes.
The work integration of people who have recovered from addiction is an essential factor in the maintaining treatment outcomes. However, its multidimensionality has not yet received the attention it ...deserves.
To investigate the critical elements shaping the work integration attempts of people who have recovered from addiction and work in Greek social enterprises.
The data was obtained from 25 interviews which were conducted during the field research period; they were processed using the method of thematic analysis.
Work integration is obstructed by a combination of individual constraints, together with obstacles related to how persons interact with their social environment, as well as with broader political, institutional, and socioeconomic parameters. The participants depended predominantly on the treatment program and their social network for work integration.
The article enriches the existing literature focusing on the workers' perspective on the issue under study. The complexity of the obstacles and limited support sources highlight both the need for client-centered interventions and design of a state-level work integration strategy. In this context, work environments with the potential of a holistic approach to work integration obstacles, such as work integration social enterprises, remain untapped opportunities.
Longitudinal studies conducted within the social economy have the potential to provide useful insights by tracing participant experiences and illuminating long-term outcomes of program interventions. ...However, longitudinal studies are challenging, not only due to retention of participants, but also when a longitudinal study covers a broad geographic area. The authors collaborated in a five-year pan-Canadian longitudinal study following youth participants in work-integration social enterprise (WISE) training programs. This article traces the experiences of study teams in Ontario and Greater Vancouver, providing accounts of the approaches and challenges encountered when working in geographically and socio-economically diverse locales over time with youth participants facing social marginalization. This article highlights three aspects of data collection—recruitment, retention, and research methods and logistics—offering insights into how each team devised its own strategies to fit with local circumstances while maintaining consistency across research sites.
PurposeStudies on the work integration of persons with disabilities (PwD) and the role of social dialogue therein are scarce. The study examines how the different systems of workers’ representation ...and industrial relations in Slovakia and Norway facilitate PwD work integration. Taking a social ecosystem perspective, we acknowledge the role of various stakeholders and their interactions in supporting PwD work integration. The paper’s conceptual contribution lies in including social dialogue actors in this ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachEvidence was collected via desk research, 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews with 51 respondents and stakeholder workshops in 2019–2020.FindingsThe findings from Norway confirm the expected coordination of unions and employers in PwD work integration. Evidence from Slovakia shows that in decentralised industrial relations systems, institutional constraints beyond the workplace determine employers’ and worker representatives’ approaches in PwD integration. Most policy-level outcomes are contested, as integration occurs predominantly via sheltered workplaces without interest representation.Social implicationsThis paper identifies the primary sources of variation in the work integration of PwD. It also highlights opportunities for social partners across both situations to exercise agency and engagement to improve PwD work integration.Originality/valueBy integrating two streams of literature – social policy and welfare state and industrial relations – this paper examines PwD work integration from a social ecosystem perspective. Empirically, it offers novel qualitative comparative evidence on trade unions’ and employers’ roles in Slovakia and Norway.
In an era of workfare, characterized by the rise of ‘work first’ policies, new actors are emerging in the field of labour market integration. This paper explores the role of one labour market ...intermediary- Petites-Mains. Petites-Mains is a Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE), which emerged to promote the social and economic inclusion of immigrant women in Montreal. We discuss the challenges the organization confronts in balancing its hybrid economic/social mandate and countering the negative effects of the market. While WISEs in Quebec have their origins in community or religious associations and their emergence can be traced to the decline of the welfare state, over time they have become increasingly dependent on state funding (especially support from the provincial government). The increasingly neoliberal orientation of provincial governments threatens the social mandates of the WISEs. These changes are affecting the potential of WISEs to assist marginalized immigrant women. We discuss some of the ways WISEs respond to the challenges they confront, leveraging networks at a variety of scales, and in doing so, we challenge conventional accounts of the role of civil society organizations.
We explore the rise of social enterprises, particularly, work integration social enterprises (WISEs), their particular hybrid organizational form, and their impact on their clients. We propose that ...WISEs are an expression of a neoliberal welfare logic that challenges social rights by emphasizing market solutions to social needs and by devolving and privatizing social services to the local level and the private sector. We show that as a hybrid organizational form, WISEs must balance between two conflicting institutional logics: market and social services. Our research demonstrates that when the WISEs are dominated by a market logic, they commodify their clients as production workers. We suggest that WISEs, as a hybrid organizational form, contribute to the neoliberal project of blurring the boundaries between the market and the welfare state.
This article examines the challenges and opportunities for novel governance instruments for labour market inclusion of foreign‐born citizens, developed by local governments in collaboration with ...non‐profit civil society organisations in Sweden. It is informed by the case of the collaborative arrangements developed between the city of Gothenburg and work integration social enterprises (WISE). The article builds upon collaborative governance and innovation literature and focuses specifically on the first reserved public procurements for buying work training and other services from WISE. Our findings show how a tool that originates from a market governing mechanism can develop into a collaborative governance and innovation instrument. The design and implementation of the reserved procurements set in motion collaborative innovation through creation of collaborative spaces, joint ownership and empowerment, and by turning market governance mechanisms into collaborative governance. First, the ‘looseness’ and ‘openness’ of the governmental arrangements and collaboration spaces created by local actors enabled collaborative innovation. Second, the longstanding innovativeness and collaboration of WISE also played an important role in the development of this collaborative instrument. Third, the small scale of WISE and the larger scale of municipal contracts resulted in scaling up strategies that helped shape collaborative, rather than competitive, practices among WISE, as well as the implementation and diffusion of the innovation. We end the article by discussing the study's implications for collaborative governance and innovation between local governments and civil society.
This study investigates which organizational capabilities (OC) enable Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) to pursue both social objectives and sustainable sources of revenue. It does so by ...focusing on the nature and use of OC that support both the social and the economic sustainability of this type of enterprise. The focus of the study is a consortium of 22 organizations that operate under the umbrella of Harmony, the fictional name of a WISE founded in Veneto, Italy. Case study analysis revealed three essential key prosocial capabilities supporting social innovation, namely the capability to engage and include stakeholders, the capability to learn from stakeholders and the capability to grow by diversification. We recommend that WISEs should establish a set of prosocial routines which enable solutions to complex neglected issues, such as the integration of the various categories of people facing specific challenges and which explicitly work towards the creation of social value.
Objective: People with mental illnesses face stigma that hinders their full integration into society. Work is a major determinant of social inclusion, however, people with mental disorders have fewer ...opportunities to work. Emerging evidence suggests that social enterprises help disadvantaged people with their work integration process. The purpose of this study is to enhance our understanding about how perceptions of stigma can be decreased for people with mental disorders throughout their work experience in a social enterprise. Method: Using a longitudinal study design, 310 individuals with mental disorders employed in Italian social enterprises completed a battery of questionnaires on individual (e.g., severity of symptoms; occupational self-efficacy) and environmental (e.g., social support; organizational constraints) variables. Of the 223 individuals potentially eligible at the 12-month follow up, 139 completed a battery of questionnaires on social and working skills, perceived work productivity and perceived stigma. Path analyses were used to test a model delineating how people with mental disorders working in social enterprises improve social and work outcomes (i.e., motivation, skills and productivity), and reduce the perception of being stigmatized. Results: Working in a social enterprise enhances working social skills, which leads to a perception of higher productivity and, consequently, the perception of being discriminated against and stigmatized is reduced. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Social enterprise provides a context in which people with mental disorders reach a sense of work-related and social competence. This sense of competence helps them to reduce perceived stigma, which is a crucial step toward social inclusion.
PDF
