Title: Network organisations for externality challenges: how social entrepreneurship co-evolves with ICT-enabled solutions

Authors: Sabrina Bonomi; Francesca Ricciardi; Cecilia Rossignoli

Addresses: e-Campus University, Via Isimbardi, 10, 22060 Novedrate (Como), Italy ' University of Verona, via Cantarane, 24 - 37129 Verona, Italy ' University of Verona, via Cantarane, 24 - 37129 Verona, Italy

Abstract: This study aims to investigate how network forms of organising, information technology-enabled solutions, as well as their institutional context, co-evolve in social entrepreneurship. The results of an in-depth longitudinal study on a food donation organisation suggest that: 1) social entrepreneurship manifests itself through a network-shaped organisational form, which is mainly expected to catalyse the transformation of externalities into successfully manageable commons for societal benefit; 2) social entrepreneurship evolves dynamically through specific organisational features and success factors, which are effectively understandable by leveraging the joint explanatory power of the theory of the commons and the theory of sustainability transitions; 3) these theories also provide sound conceptual tools to explain how information and communication technologies (ICTs) co-evolve with the social entrepreneurship organisation, its business model, and the institutional context.

Keywords: organisational forms; network organisation; sustainability; social entrepreneurship; social enterprise; institutional work; information systems; socio-technical systems; innovation ecosystems; business model innovation; commons.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKBD.2017.088183

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2017 Vol.8 No.4, pp.346 - 366

Received: 22 Jun 2017
Accepted: 22 Jun 2017
Published online: 27 Nov 2017 *

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