Can Social Entrepreneurship Researchers Learn from Family Business Scholarship? A Theory-Based Future Research Agenda

Searching for a balance between social mission and financial viability is a distinguishing feature of social business ventures. This quest might lead to complex challenges and conundrums, similar to those that arise in family businesses composed of closely intertwined systems of ‘family’ and ‘business’. Therefore, we question whether drawing on family business scholarship can help social entrepreneurship researchers move the field forward. Relying on a systems model, we conceptually frame three organizational challenges of social business venture management that can be addressed by insights from the family business literature: aligning multiple stakeholders, achieving competitive advantages and enacting sustainable solutions. To analyse these, we turn to three main theories drawn from family business research – organizational identity theory, resource-based view and stewardship theory. As a result, we formulate research questions relevant for future social entrepreneurship research. By doing so, we hope to offer social entrepreneurship scholars some guiding principles that are grounded on the experience of researchers who have analysed similar circumstances and challenges in other contexts.