Forming partnerships with BoP (Base of the Pyramid) producers to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in the global market is filled with uncertainty. Extent literature has considered non-market actors as “door openers” for these partnerships. However, in contexts where these brokers are absent or inefficient, entrepreneurs cannot adopt a rational approach to collaboration, they rather form partnerships through an effectual process resolving thus uncertainty. Little is known about how entrepreneurs identify, select, and engage BoP producers in contexts where non-market actors are absent or inefficient. We examined the case of a Moroccan born-global venture aiming at integrating women weavers in rural communities as producers. We identified a three-stage process model where the venture engaged in effectual networking with potential stakeholders from BoP communities. During the second stage, the venture repeatedly engaged one self-selected stakeholder, an informal reseller, in its co-creation process with customers, and patiently invested in non-selected stakeholders. During the third stage, the venture and the self-selected stakeholder had to mutually adapt to external contingencies. We contribute to the BoP literature, first, by identifying mechanisms through which BoP ventures navigate different sources of uncertainty: institutional, behavioral, technological, and environmental uncertainties, in contexts where non-market actors are absent or inefficient, to integrate BoP producers in the global market. Second, our process model unveils the iterative and interactive nature of entrepreneurship at the BoP.

Research on contextualisation of entrepreneurship continues to evolve. Prior studies have overly focused on commercial entrepreneurship and treated context as a set of external variables affecting entrepreneurs. More recent scholarship argues that entrepreneurs actively shape their contexts and to fully contextualise entrepreneurship other types of entrepreneurship, particularly beyond the Global North must be included. This study contributes to this discussion through a literature review that explores how social entrepreneurs (SE) (in the global South and North) engage with/enact/do their contexts. This review examines the interconnections between SE and their context through a relational approach aiming to offer a more nuanced understanding of contextualisation. This study forms part of a broader research project on social entrepreneurship in Latin America.

Given the limited resources in low-income markets, seeking external investment is often seen as essential for firms aiming to scale broadly across these settings. Less examined, however, is the possibility of growth through local resource mobilization. To fill this gap, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of Grameen Bank’s local pathway to scale across Bangladesh between 2002 and 2022. We conclude that the best possible explanation of its successful second-stage scaling is that its late addition of a microsavings business model to its portfolio uncovered local resources and organizational synergies that catalyzed the subsequent expansion of its microcredit business to new communities. To generalize from the Grameen case, we examine the potential of managing business model portfolios in scaling firm size and impact across low-income markets.

Despite high aspirations of social entrepreneurs of their transformative potential in tackling societal challenges, little is known whether good intentions translate into intended impacts (Barnett et al., 2020; Liket et al., 2014). In search of concepts to explain and investigate the tension between impact-ambitions and impact-achievements of social enterprises, this paper investigates the concept of means-end decoupling in social enterprises. The paper examines whether the concept of decoupling creates new insights and pathways for understanding the mechanisms through which desired outcomes are (or are not) achieved. We have performed a systematic literature review into the causes, consequences and mechanisms of means-end decoupling. Grouping our findings into a conceptual framework, four themes emerged: (1) internal factors that can influence means-end decoupling, (2) external factors that can influence means-end decoupling, (3) the enablers of recoupling and (4) what are the ends. We deepened our insights and validated our findings in focus groups, through which a fifth lens emerged: (5) reasons to measure ends (to prove vs. to improve).

This paper explores the effect of cluster characteristics on the location choice and social performance of social enterprises. While prior research has examined the delimited regional influences on social enterprises' establishment and growth rates, it is still unclear why some regions have a higher rate of (successful) social enterprises than others. Utilizing a dataset comprising 3194 U.S.-based social enterprises, we employ a conditional logit model to identify specific cluster characteristics that influence the location choices of social enterprises. Through linear regression analysis, we also examine the social performance implications of these choices. We find evidence that social enterprises’ social performance is higher in clusters with charities and social problems. However, we also show that the social performance of social enterprises is adversely affected by universities and support services. By providing insights into the nuanced relationship between regional influences and social performance, this research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the intricate dynamics shaping the success of social enterprises within clusters.