From Social Knowledge to Sustainable Social Enterprises: Examining the Mediating Role of Social Value Creation

Abstract

This paper explores whether social knowledge directly influences social enterprise sustainability while considers whether social value creation acts as a mediator therein. Based on the Knowledge-Based View (KBV), the research hypothesizes a positive relationship between social knowledge and the fact that social enterprises can generate higher levels of social value which in turn increase their level of sustainability. Social enterprises are crucial towards solving the social challenges as well as ensuring that the enterprise is sustainable. In existing, little effort has been done in analyzing the role of social knowledge in terms of social enterprise sustainability and how the relationship works, especially in the developing world.

In current study, positivist paradigm was used to adopt a quantitative research design. The structured questionnaire was used to gather data in terms of social entrepreneurs and management staff of social enterprises in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad, Pakistan. A sample of 352 respondents was selected based on power statistics. To measure the constructs in the study, established measurement scales evolved through previous studies were used. The results are that social knowledge significantly and positively influences the sustainability and social value creation of social enterprises. In addition to this, further creation of social value has a large impact on the sustainability of social enterprise. The mediation analysis verifies that social value creation indeed does mediate between social knowledge and social enterprise sustainability so that, in social enterprises, social knowledge serves as the means of transforming their knowledge resources into sustainable outcomes by means of social value creation.

The paper expands the body of writing that exists about social entrepreneurship by taking the Knowledge-Based View and demonstrating that social value creation is a latent mechanism that ties social knowledge to sustainability. The results provide valuable guidance to social entrepreneurs, policy makers, and development agencies, who want to boost both the long-term sustainability and social engagement of social enterprises.