Richard Tuck

This conceptual paper was awarded a Best Paper Award by the Academy of Management in 2015.

There are increasing pressures on social enterprises to become more and more businesslike. But, to what extent is it too much to be too businesslike? In this conceptual paper, we propose that there is a point of business-likeness where the production of an organization’s maximum social benefit is reached. Beyond this optimal point, "peak social benefit", businesslike operations may become… Show more

This conceptual paper was awarded a Best Paper Award by the Academy of Management in 2015.

There are increasing pressures on social enterprises to become more and more businesslike. But, to what extent is it too much to be too businesslike? In this conceptual paper, we propose that there is a point of business-likeness where the production of an organization’s maximum social benefit is reached. Beyond this optimal point, "peak social benefit", businesslike operations may become corporate-like and the social benefit of the organization’s operations declines. Nowhere in the social enterprise literature are the consequences of business- likeness discussed. No one tells the social enterprise when to ‘say when’ and stop it from becoming too businesslike where the social mission of the venture is compromised. Show less

We reviewed two key repositories of Social Entrepreneurship pedagogical resources: Ashoka.org and CasePlace.org. Each provides a set of useful resources, together comprising videos, syllabi, cases, readings and other resources that make it easy for instructors to design Social Entrepreneurship courses, modules or programs. We caution against what we see as over-enthusiasm for the topic, however, since Social Entrepreneurship involves tinkering with social structures, with sometimes disastrous… Show more

We reviewed two key repositories of Social Entrepreneurship pedagogical resources: Ashoka.org and CasePlace.org. Each provides a set of useful resources, together comprising videos, syllabi, cases, readings and other resources that make it easy for instructors to design Social Entrepreneurship courses, modules or programs. We caution against what we see as over-enthusiasm for the topic, however, since Social Entrepreneurship involves tinkering with social structures, with sometimes disastrous unintended effects. We advise instructors to teach their students to think critically about social entrepreneurship initiatives, since they include the potential for harm as well as good. Show less