City Research Online

Abstract

Social entrepreneurs increasingly use franchising to scale social value. Tracey and Jarvis (2007) described how social franchising is similar to commercial franchising, but also noted critical challenges arising from dual social and commercial goals. We investigate a social franchisor that overcame these challenges and describe how the social mission became the source of innovation for its business model. We show that the social mission fostered a shared identity that motivated and guided the search for adaptations to the franchise model. In particular, the shared mission-driven identity created pressure toward (1) decentralized decision-making, (2) shared governance, and (3) a new role for the franchisor as orchestrator of collaborative knowledge sharing among franchisees. Findings should help social franchisors avoid common pitfalls and suggest future research questions for social entrepreneurship and franchising scholars.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Giudici, A., Combs, J. G., Cannatelli, B. and Smith, B. R., Successful scaling in social franchising: The case of Impact Hub, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Publisher Keywords:	social entrepreneurship, social franchising, mission-driven identity, Franchising, Business Models
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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