Managing Dualities Within the Social Enterprise Sarah Brenkman (S2230739)

Managing Dualities Within the Social Enterprise Sarah Brenkman (S2230739)

University of Groningen

dr. J. F. J. Vos dr. C. Reezigt

Word Count: 12.181 (appendix excluded) January 2018

MSc BA Change Management Faculty of Economics and Business

University of Groningen

Abstract

Attention towards social entrepreneurship is on the rise, as social enterprises are increasingly recognized of being of fundamental importance in solving societal issues. Social enterprises combine social and business dimensions within their enterprise and are therefore coping with a dual-mission. This dual mission results in several tensions, that need to be managed by social entrepreneurs. However, research regarding managing tensions within a social enterprise is scarce. Therefore, qualitative research at three social enterprises was conducted. Sources included thirteen semi-structured interviews, observations at the research sites and data from enterprise-specific written sources. Atlas.ti was used to stimulate a systematic inductive coding process. The results indicate that social-business dualities appear in tensions related to organizational dimensions, the workforce, the product and collaborations. The cross-case analysis showed that these tensions were managed by focusing on growth, mobilizing additional workforce, professionalization, unique constructions and extensive communication. This research has multiple practical implications, as it gains insights in the way governments can offer support to social enterprises. From an academic perspective, this research adds to the limited literature field of how social entrepreneurs cope with tensions. Furthermore, this research adds to duality theory by providing insights in which tensions are present at social enterprises.

Keywords: social enterprise, social entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurship, duality theory,

social-business tensions, managing tensions

Table of Content

Introduction ... 4!

Literature Review ... 6!

Clarifying the fuzzy concepts around social entrepreneurship ... 6!

Tensions at Social Enterprises ... 11!

Research Methodology ... 13!

Research approach ... 13!

Case selection and participants ... 13!

Data collection ... 15!

Data analysis ... 16!

Results ... 18!

Case 1: Rebottled ... 18!

Case 2: Het Schathuis ... 20!

Case 3: Van Hulley ... 23!

Cross-case analysis ... 26!

Discussion and Conclusion ... 28!

Discussion of findings... 28!

Theoretical implications ... 30!

Practical implications ... 30!

Future research and limitations ... 31!

Concluding remarks ... 32!

References ... 34!

Introduction

Social enterprises have the potential to create system-changing solutions with impactful results (Orr, 2017). These solutions are crucial, as global issues are more challenging than ever. Also in the Netherlands, a country that is one of the world’s ten richest countries, societal issues are present (Verloop & Hillen, 2014). The responsibility of acting on these societal issues has shifted towards the private sector, due to privatization of government services (Hayllar &

Wettenhall, 2013). Therefore, the way of doing business needs to be modified, in order to achieve global changes (United Nations, 2015; World Economic Forum, 2016). Social enterprises have the potential to achieve changes, as they aim to add societal value, as well as economic value (Bosma, Schøtt, Terjesen, & Kew, 2016; Orr, 2017). By combining both social mission demands and business ventures demands, social enterprises aim for a dual mission (Costanzo, Vurro, Foster, Servato, & Perrini, 2014; Smith, Gonin, & Besharov, 2013). The social mission focusses on impact for society, whereas business venture dimensions focus on profit and efficiency. This social-business duality presents tensions for social entrepreneurs (Battilana & Dorado, 2010).

Dualities and tensions are contradictory but interrelated elements, which can and should never be resolved absolutely (Mitchell, Madill, & Chreim, 2016). Besides the systematic review of Smith, Gonin and Besharov (2013) on tensions at social enterprises, research has been scant (Costanzo et al., 2014). Although tensions lead to difficulties for social entrepreneurs (Battilana

& Dorado, 2010), social entrepreneurs tend to underestimate the importance of dualities, leading to less effective and less impactful social enterprises (Whye & Yazdanifard, 2015).

To add to theory development within the research of social enterprises, further research is required to investigate which tensions social enterprises experience and how social enterprises manage the social-business duality within the social enterprise. A dualities lens allows researchers to explore paradoxes in organizations (Smith & Graetz, 2011). By focusing on both aspects of the duality, for example on the economic and social side of the company, organizational performance of the company can increase (Cameron, 1986; Quinn & Cameron, 1988).

Furthermore, little research is conducted regarding how dualities are managed within the

context of social enterprises (Birkinshaw, Crilly, Bouquet, & Lee, 2016). Therefore, this

research aims to discover how social entrepreneurs manage dualities within their social enterprise. Because this area is underexposed, this research aims to develop theory regarding this subject. By following the statement of Friedman (1970) ‘only people can have responsibilities’, this research focusses on how social entrepreneurs manage dualities. Social entrepreneurs lead the social enterprise and therefore have the duty to act on dualities. Although it is recognized that social enterprises have the potential to change business (Bosma et al., 2016;

Orr, 2017), a clear definition of social enterprises does not exist (Dacin, Dacin, & Tracy, 2011).

Ambiguity about the definition of a social enterprise and in particular about which problems they face, makes it difficult to design appropriate regulations (Sociaal-Economische Raad, 2015), leading to the inability of governments to stimulate social enterprises effectively. These stimulations are crucial, as social enterprises could be more impactful when they are able to grow (McKinsey & Company, 2016; Stedennetwerk G32, 2017).

One of the underlying reasons of the ambiguous definition of social enterprises might be their nature. Different social enterprises address various social goals. These goals vary from sustainability or circularity to stimulating human rights (such as freedom of speech). Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) focus on employing disadvantaged employees (also referred to as beneficiaries). The business venture dimension of WISE includes focus on profit and efficiency, inevitably leading to tensions (Smith et al., 2013). According to Battilana, Sengul, Pache and Model (2015) WISE experience more challenges. Therefore, the scope of this research includes social enterprises which focus on work integration.

To conclude, the literature gap results in the following research question: ‘How do social entrepreneurs manage dualities within the social enterprise?’. By answering the research question, this research contributes to multiple areas. First, by adding to the immature literature field of tensions that social enterprises face (Birkinshaw et al., 2016; Costanzo et al., 2014).

Second, the research aims to present insights in tensions that social enterprises face. These

insights can be relevant for municipalities and governmental organizations that aim to stimulate

social entrepreneurship, as well as for social entrepreneurs (Whye & Yazdanifard, 2015). By

gaining insight in which dualities social enterprises face and how they are managed, support

for social entrepreneurs towards a more effective organization can be stimulated. Lastly, this

research contributes to dualities theory, by providing concrete insights in dualities at social

enterprises.

Literature Review

Conclusive definitions of social entrepreneurship, social enterprises and the social entrepreneur are non-existent. To enhance the understanding about the definitional issues around these concepts, this section provides insight in the definitional debates. Furthermore, researched tensions which social entrepreneurs face are summarized, followed by literature about duality theory.

Clarifying the fuzzy concepts around social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship in relation to social change is already mentioned in 1911 by Schumepeter, according to Swedberg (2006). Despite this, social entrepreneurship still lacks a unifying paradigm (Peredo & McLean, 2006) like entrepreneurship theory in general (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). Table one presents an overview of six definitions in use. All include social goals within the definition, formulated as social value creation (Austin, Stevenson, & Wei-Skillern, 2006; Bosma et al., 2015; Choi &

Majumdar, 2014; Mair & Martí, 2006), social goals (Peredo & McLean, 2006) or social purpose (Stevens, Moray, & Bruneel; 2015). Notable is that some definitions include the aspect of an organization within this definition, where Mair and Martí (2006) state that social entrepreneurship can also occur within a regular company, to which they refer to as social intrapreneurship. Within this research, the social entrepreneur and the social enterprise organization will be included, like the ‘cluster concept’ used by Choi and Majumdar (2014).

Social enterprise. Although the concepts of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship are sometimes used interchangeably (Peredo & McLean, 2006), table 2 shows the variety of definitions of social enterprises that are in use. Scholars define several types of social enterprises. Most typologies are based on distribution of social and economic goals, often defined as a non-profit enterprise towards a for-profit enterprise. A variant of this is the hybrid organization, that aims to balance both goals (Alter, 2007). However, all definitions do emphasize social goals, such as the social mission (Verloop & Hillen, 2014), solutions to social problems (Mitchell et al., 2016), societal value (Social Enterprise NL, n.d.) and social impact (European Commision, 2011).

Social entrepreneur. To provide an understanding of what social entrepreneurship entails, the definition of a social entrepreneur needs to be discussed (Hjorth & Bjerke, 2006).

Like the concept of a social enterprise, multiple definitions of the social entrepreneur are in use

(Sastre-Castillo, Peris-Ortiz, & Danvila-Del Valle, 2015; Turner, Crook, & Miller, 2014). Some scholars describe the social entrepreneurs as people that aim to add social impact (e.g. Abu- Saifan, 2012; Peredo & McLean, 2006), within or outside a business venture. Others focus on specific traits social entrepreneurs possess. Although fundamental differences between commercial and social entrepreneurs are found (Orr, 2017), others find similar characteristics too. Examples are to see opportunities (Tracey & Phillips, 2007), desire to innovate (Mair &

Martí, 2006) and willingness to bear risk (Zahra, Gedajlovic, Neubaum, & Shulman, 2009).

Unraveling the fuzzy concepts. To conclude, multiple definitions of social entrepreneurship, the social enterprise and the social entrepreneur are apparent. As Peredo and McLean (2006) stated: ‘it is not a tidy concept’, boundaries are unclear and agreements about the concept are challenging too. It is argued that this debate around the definition of ‘the’ social enterprise is problematic as it adds little to theory development in management and organizational sciences (Dacin et al., 2011). All definitions vary, but have in agreement that they emphasize the social mission. Therefore, this research focusses on a mission-based definition, instead of focusing on definitional issues (Dacin et al., 2011). Furthermore, this research follows the view of Bjerke and Karlsson (2013), which ties entrepreneurship to businesses ventures. This leads inevitably to exclusion of social intrapreneurship (Mair &

Martí, 2006) and social entrepreneurship defined as someone that starts a social action initiative

(London & Morfopoulos, 2010). For clarity purposes, a social entrepreneur within this research

is defined as the founder/leader of the social enterprise. The social enterprise is classified based

on their social mission. Within this research, the social mission of the enterprise is defined

according to the WISE as a mission of supporting the long-term unemployed to reintegrate into

the workforce (Battilana et al., 2015). Lastly, social entrepreneurship is perceived as

overarching cluster concept, covering social enterprises and social entrepreneurs.

Table 1

Definitions of Social Entrepreneurship

Source Definition Core Characteristics

Austin et al. (2006)

“Innovative, social value creating activity that can occur within or across the nonprofit, business, or government sectors” (p. 2).

Innovation, social value creating, occurs within/across several sectors Bosma et al. (2016)

“The organisation is driven by (social) value creation, rather than value capture; and the organization is market-based, rather than

nonmarket-based” (p. 18).

Social value creation, market-based organization

Choi and Majumdar (2014)

“..as a cluster concept implies that social entrepreneurship is a representation of the combined quality of certain sub-concepts: i.e. social value creation, the social entrepreneur, the SE organization, market orientation, and social innovation” (p. 372).

Social value creating, social entrepreneur, the SE organization, market orientation and social innovation

Mair and Martí (2006)

“..as a practice that integrates economic and social value creation” (p. 36).

“..as a process of creating value by combining resources in new ways; these resource combinations are intended primarily to explore and exploit opportunities to create social value by stimulating social change or meeting social needs and; when viewed as a process, social entrepreneurship involves the offering of services and products but can also refer to the creation of new organizations” (p. 37).

Practice, process, economic and social value creation

Peredo and McLean (2006)

“… that what makes an undertaking an example of social entrepreneurship is the presence of social goals in the purposes of that undertaking” (p. 63).

“..is exercised where some person or group: (1) aim(s) at creating social value, either exclusively or at least in some prominent way;

(2) show(s) a capacity to recognize and take advantage of opportunities to create that value (‘‘envision’’); (3) employ(s) innovation, ranging from outright invention to adapting someone else’s novelty, in creating and/or distributing social value; (4) is/are willing to accept an above-average degree of risk in creating and disseminating social value; and (5) is/are unusually resourceful in being relatively undaunted by scarce assets in pursuing their social venture (p. 64)

Social goals, social value creation

Stevens et al. (2015)

“..entrepreneurship with an embedded social purpose” (p. 1053) .

Entrepreneurship, social purpose

Table 2

Definitions of the Social Enterprise

Source Definition Core Characteristics

Alter (2007)

“Shifting stakeholder expectations of nonprofit organizations to achieve larger scale social impact while also diversifying their funding has been credited as a major factor in the appearance of the “nonprofit hybrid” part for-profit and part nonprofit. At this intersection of business and traditional nonprofit is where the social enterprise lies” (p. 13).

“All hybrid organizations generate both social and economic value and are organized by degree of activity as it relates to: 1) motive, 2) accountability, and 3) use of income. The Hybrid Spectrum includes four types of Hybrid Practitioners. On the right hand side of the spectrum are for-profit entities that create social value but whose main motives are profit-making and distribution of profit to shareholders. On the left hand side of the spectrum are nonprofits with commercial activities that generate economic value to fund social programs but whose main motive is mission accomplishment as dictated by stakeholder mandate” (p. 14).

Nonprofit to for-profit, hybrid spectrum, social and economic value

Battilana and Lee (2014)

“… hybrid organizing, which we define as the activities, structures, processes and meanings by which organizations make sense of and combine multiple organizational forms. (…) social enterprises that combine the organizational forms of both business and charity at their cores are an ideal type of hybrid organization” (p. 397).

Hybrid organization,

European Commission (2011)

‘‘.. an operator in the social economy whose main objective is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for its owners or shareholders’’ (p. 2).

“… those for which the social or societal objective of the common good is the reason for the commercial activity, often in the form of a high level of social innovation, those where profits are mainly reinvested with a view to achieving this social objective and where the method of organization or ownership system reflects the enterprise's mission, using democratic or participatory principles or focusing on social justice” (p.3).

Social impact, social objective

London and Morfopoulos (2010)

Distinguish fourteen types of social enterprises, e.g. CSR efforts, for-profit private enterprises, for profit socially focused companies, not-for-profit companies and institutions, charities and foundations, religious organizations, ad hoc community lobbying efforts and consortia of private initiatives.

Fourteen types, for-profit, not-for-profit

Mitchell et al. (2016)

“Social enterprises are “hybrid” organizations seeking solutions to social problems and pursuing positive social change through the adoption of for- profit business models” (p.6).

Hybrid, solution to social problems, social change, for-profit

Lumpkin, Moss, Gras, Kato and Amezcua (2013)

“… not-for-profit (NFP) sector, traditional for-profit enterprises with social missions, and hybrid organizations that mix both social and entrepreneurial practices and objectives” (p. 762).

Three types: non-profit, for-profit and hybrid Social Enterprise NL (n.d.)

Social Enterprise NL (n.d.) distinguishes seven types of enterprises within a continuum of societal value (only impact) and financial value (profit

first). The social enterprise is in between and focuses on impact first.

Seven types, differ in

distribution of societal

value and economic value

Verloop and Hillen (2014)

“..primarily has a social mission: impact first, realizes that mission as an independent enterprise that provides a service or product, is financially self- sustaining, based on trade or other forms of value exchange, and therefore barely, if at all, dependent on donations or subsidies, is social in the way it is governed (a social enterprise is transparent, profits are allowed, but financial targets are subordinate to the mission, shareholders get a reasonable slice of profits, all stakeholders have a balanced say in strategy and management, a social enterprise is fair to everyone, a social enterprise is aware of its ecological footprint)” (p. 18).

Social mission, impact first

Table 3

Definitions of the Social Entrepreneur

Source Definition Core Characteristics

Abu-Saifan (2012)

“The social entrepreneur is a mission-driven individual who uses a set of entrepreneurial behaviours to deliver a social value to the less privileged, all through an entrepreneurially oriented entity that is financially independent, self-sufficient, or sustainable” (p. 25).

Mission- driven

Bacq, Hartog and Hoogendoorn (2016)

“… differentiate themselves by the primacy they attach to social goals” (p. 715).

Social goals

Bosma et al. (2016)

“… individuals who are, alone or with others, currently involved in social entrepreneurial activity and have taken concrete actions in the past 12 months to help start this venture” (p.5).

Mort, Weerawardena and Carnegie (2003)

“… are first driven by the social mission of creating better social value than their competitors which results in them exhibiting entrepreneurially virtuous behavior. (…) exhibit a balanced judgment, a coherent unity of purpose and action in the face of complexity. (…) explore and recognize opportunities to create better social value for their clients. (…) display innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking propensity in their key decision making” (p. 82).

Characteristics of social entrepreneur

London and Morfopoulos (2010)

Someone that starts a social action initiative, which can also occur within an existing company.

Social action initiative, also within existing company.

Peredo and McLean (2006)

“…the social entrepreneur aims in some way to increase “social value” (..)” (p. 59).

Social value Sastre-Castillo et al. (2015)

“… engage in a variety of activities, but always with the intention of solving social problems. Social entrepreneurs are not

merely people who perform acts of charity; they have an evident desire to improve social well-being and develop projects with long-term vision” (p. 349).

Solving social problems

Tian and Smith (2014)

“… seek to improve the world through revenue generating business” (p. 42).

Improve the world through revenue

generating business

Tensions at Social Enterprises

Social enterprises cope with social mission dimensions and business venture dimensions. This dual-mission leads to social-business tensions within the social enterprise. Research related to the specific topic is addressed.

Tensions within social enterprises. Social enterprises address both entrepreneurial and social challenges, resulting in emerging tension within the social enterprises (Austin et al., 2006; Battilana & Dorado, 2010; Mitchell et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2013). According to Dittrich, Jaspers, Van der Valk and Wynstra (2006) dualities need to be recognized and understood before they can be managed. Unfortunately, research amongst tensions within social enterprises is scarce. To the researcher’s knowledge, Smith et al. (2013) provide the only research directed towards tensions within social enterprises. Smith et al. (2013) uncover four tensions, each tension includes social mission dimensions and business venture dimensions.

The performing tension, consists of social and business outcomes of the social enterprise. Social outcomes are more qualitative and focused on the mission, whereas business outcomes focus more on stakeholders and quantitative metrics. Organizing tensions can appear as organizations hire beneficiaries to fulfill their mission. However, business-wise profitability is important, leading to hiring the most efficient employees. The third tension includes that, what with the stakeholders and employees identify with. Some may identify with the social mission, where others identify with the business venture. Lastly, the learning tension includes that the social mission often requires a long horizon, whereas business success can come from short-term gains (Smith et al., 2013). Smith et al. (2013) show how social-business tensions are apparent within social enterprises. One of their recommendations focuses on which tensions are most salient in social enterprises (Smith et al., 2013).

Dualities theory. The dualities approach allows researchers to recognize, understand and explore these paradoxes in organizations (Smith & Graetz, 2011). Instead of focusing on

‘choosing’ between or ‘resolving’ these dilemmas, duality theory argues to view these

seemingly contradictory values as essential components that must co-exist. The theory

encourages building constructs that accommodate contradictory elements of management as

simultaneously operating truths (Smith & Graetz, 2011). This is important, as focusing on one

pole of a duality (Smith & Graetz, 2011; Van de Ven & Poole, 2005), can lead to stagnation

and even decline, instead of increasing organizational performance (Van de Ven & Poole,

2005). Adding to this, the best-performing organizations manage to meet contradictory

performance criteria, such as being flexible and stable simultaneously, as is already shown by

Cameron (1986) and Quinn and Cameron (1988).

Although research towards tensions and dualities directed to social enterprises is scarce, duality research amongst commercial organizations is present. Jaffee (2008) states that contradictory elements are present within every organization. General examples of dualities are control versus commitment, differentiation versus integration (Jaffee, 2008), control versus flexibility, efficiency versus creativity and continuity versus change (Quinn and Rohrbaugh, 1983).

Dualism elements. The contribution of the duality perspective is acknowledged by other researches, as management research has increasingly adopted a paradoxical or duality perspective in studying phenomena (Boonstra, van Offenbeek, & Vos, 2017; Dittrich et al.

2006; Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000). Managing dualities contributes to more effective and impactful enterprises (Whye & Yazdanifard, 2015), emphasizing the importance of understanding these (Battilana & Dorado, 2010). By identifying the oppositional concepts of dualities, tensions could be explored (Graetz & Smith, 2008). However, to understand dualism elements in order to achieve organizational effectiveness, a deeper understanding of the dualities characteristics is needed. Five characteristics of dualities that indicate how to deal with dualities can be distinguished: simultaneity, relational, minimal threshold, dynamism and improvisation (Mitchell et al., 2016; Smith & Graetz, 2011). The first characteristic refers to a simultaneous presence of the seemingly contradicting elements. This is the basis of dualities.

‘Relational’ refers to the bi-directional relation dualities have, leading to the possibility that one duality influences another (Mitchell et al., 2016). A minimum level of each pole of the duality needs to be present. This threshold leads to the effective organization. ‘Dynamism’ is the complementary force that encourages a dynamic interaction. To achieve a constructive tension and an effective organization, dynamism works with and within the aforementioned characteristics. Lastly, improvisation is an important characteristic, which works with the four characteristics, to manage continuity and change (Smith & Graetz, 2011). As tensions are unpredictable and emergent, improvisation is needed to achieve balance. Scholars indicated presence of social-business tensions within social enterprises. However, research remains scarce (Birkinshaw et al., 2016; Costanzo et al., 2014). Furthermore, entrepreneurs tend to underestimate the effects of managing dualities correctly (Whye & Yazdanifard, 2015).

Therefore, this research focusses on which specific tensions occur at the social enterprises and

how these are managed.

Research Methodology

Research approach

This research aims to contribute to the scarce literature field of how social entrepreneurs manage the social-business duality within social enterprises. Gill and Johnson (2006) state that when little is known about a specific subject, or when a business phenomenon has not yet been addressed in academic literature, a theory development study is appropriate. Furthermore, tensions are by nature unclear (Boonstra et al., 2017) and therefore need to be studied in their natural settings to understand their nature and the complexities involved (Myers, 2009). A qualitative approach fits the research topic, so in-depth knowledge can be obtained and relationships can be discovered (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006). A case study approach is chosen, as this is seen as the appropriate strategy for addressing how and why questions (Eisenhardt, 1989).

Case selection and participants

The multiple-case study enables an in-depth examination of how social entrepreneurs approach tensions within the social enterprise. Yin (2003) states that multiple-case studies can add to theoretical replication or literal replication. For theoretical replication, cases are selected based on different settings, which results in related contradictory results. Literal replication aims to show similar results, as cases are selected based on similar settings. According to Yin (2003) three to four cases are satisfactory for literal replication logic, while six to eight are appropriate for theoretical replication. Due to practical reasons, this research focusses on literal replication logic, leading to cases selected based on similar settings.

A list of 87 companies was composed, in order to select appropriate cases. Starting point was a list of 72 enterprises related to social entrepreneurship located in the Northern Region of the Netherlands, developed by the Green Office

¹

. This list was extended by adding five social enterprises from the branch association ‘Social Enterprise NL’ and ten companies that resulted from activation of the personal network of the researcher (e.g. by using LinkedIn). As this research aims to develop a theory through literal replication logic, social enterprises are purposively selected rather than randomly (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007).

1

Schiphof, A, personal communication, May 2, 2017

Therefore, three selection criteria are applied. First, the enterprise’s mission focusses on societal impact first (as recommended by Dacin et al., 2011) and aims to run a for-profit business (excluding non-profits such as charities). Second, the social enterprise is a WISE, with the primary goal of helping the long- term unemployed people to transition back into the labor market (Battilana et al., 2015). Third, as literal replication is applied, another selection criteria is taken into account to increase comparability of cases. As research indicates that small companies often cope with other challenges as large companies (Dean, Brown, & Bamford, 1998), this research focusses on Small or Micro enterprises (up to fifty staff members). Five companies are approached by phone and after an introductory meeting with the founder of each social enterprise, Rebottled, Het Schathuis and Van Hulley were selected.

Rebottled. Rebottled is located in Utrecht. They are founded in 2015 but officially registered at the Chamber of Commerce since 2017. Their mission is social and sustainable: to create jobs for people with a distance to the working field and recycle wine bottles. This is realized by remaking wine bottles into glasses. To create work spaces, they found a collaboration with the Salvation Army. Currently eighteen people with a distance to the working field are part-time employed at Salvation Army and work indirectly for Rebottled.

Rebottled collaborates with large restaurants and hotels, to collect their wine bottles. Employees from the Salvation Army transfer these bottles from the hotel to the Salvation Army. The wine bottles are then cleaned, scrubbed and cut into glasses. By remaking the wine bottles into glasses, energy is saved compared to the regular recycling process of wine bottles.

Het Schathuis. Het Schathuis is founded in March 2017. The mission is social as they employ a diverse group of beneficiaries within a lunch café. The café opens during weekdays, from 10:00 till 16:00. Het Schathuis collaborates closely with Studio Bloesems, an atelier located on the first floor of Het Schathuis. Studio Bloesems has a sustainable mission, as they work with recycled leather (e.g. from banks and jackets). The leather is used to design products such as bracelets, booklets and bags. Furthermore, Studio Bloesems possesses a social mission, as they work with beneficiaries. The collaboration with Het Schathuis is mainly focused on the beneficiaries, as they have the possibility to work at both enterprises. As the founder of Studio Bloesems is the only employee, Studio Bloesems is not included as a separate case. The data of the interview is incorporated in the results of Het Schathuis.

Van Hulley. Van Hulley is founded in 2012. Their mission is to help women with a

disadvantaged position towards the work field. They realize this by remaking boxers from old

blouses, that would have otherwise been thrown away. Their mission is therefore social and

sustainable. The women work three days at the enterprise and attend school at the other days.

After one year, the employees leave the company and obtain a start certificate for a job or further education.

Data collection

The data was collected by means of different sources, to ensure instrument reliability (van Aken, Berends, & van der Bij, 2012; Yin, 1994). Triangulation (Yin, 2003) was used to increase the reliability and construct validity (van Aken et al., 2012). The primary data consists of semi- structured interviews. Document studies and observations at the case sites were secondary data sources for data collection. An overview of the observations and used documents can be found in Appendix 7.3.

As presented in Table 4, thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted. Interviews are useful, since talking to people, or reading what they have written, is the only way researchers can find out what they are thinking, and understand their thoughts (Myers, 2009). To increase the quality of the interview, and hereby construct validity, a pilot-interview with a social entrepreneur was held. As it appeared that naming dualities was challenging, a ranking list was added to the interview guide, successfully resulting in discussion around possible dualities.

Interviews were held at different moments in time, at a location where the respondent could speak freely and anonymity was guaranteed, which helps to reduce circumstantial bias.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted, in order to standardize the interviews, but with enough room left for respondents to add information. Furthermore, an interview protocol was developed, to assure that every respondent was asked the same questions, which helps to control researcher bias. The interviews were recorded, with permission of the interviewees, resulting in a total of 10h49m of audio recordings and 158 pages of transcripts. After the interview was conducted, the respondent received a copy of the transcript, to verify the transcript, as this adds to construct validity. This resulted in one adjustment.

The secondary data consisted of documents, written memo’s, observations and information on the social enterprises’ website. According to Blumberg, Cooper and Schindler (2014) observations help to dive into the researched world in order to understand it. By participating in the respondent’s world, the researcher can develop a feeling how they understand and give meaning to the situation. Therefore, the researcher spent multiple days at each research site and started to conduct the interviews after at least one day of observations.

To increase controllability, extensive notes were kept in a logbook, to enhance possibilities to

replicate the study. Furthermore, results are presented as precisely as possible (van Aken, et al., 2012).

Table 4

Demographical Background of Interviewees

Case Code Job title participant Gender Age Duration Interview

Rebottled RB1 Founder M 24 45:30

RB2 COO M 26 39:32

RB3 CMO M 24 43:24

RB4 Coordinator Salvation Army M 32 31:26

Schathuis SH1 Founder F 29 59:44

SH2 Social Work M 34 48:38

SH3 Social Work M 27 43:27

SH4 Social Work F 26 44:55

SH5 Intern M 22 37:47

Van Hulley VH1 Founder F 54 45:29

VH2 Manager social and production F 32 93:10

VH3 Officemanager F 25 67:01

VH4 Intern M 21 40:57

Data analysis

The transcripts were read thoroughly and multiple times to gain familiarity with the data. To work systematically, Atlas.ti was used for the coding process, thereby increasing research reliability (van Aken, et al., 2012). Because research about tensions and how social entrepreneurs cope with them is scarce, coding was conducted inductively. The within-case analysis was conducted first to gain familiarity with the data and preliminary theory generation.

Subsequently, cross-case pattern search was conducted (Eisenhardt, 1989). The researcher

coded tensions InVivo. After this was conducted, codes were grouped and merged. By grouping

these codes, first-order concepts emerged. As they can differ per case, results are presented for

each case, in the results section. During further grouping, second-order themes were formed,

which were at a more abstract level of tensions. Finally, these codes were grouped, resulting in

four aggregated dimensions. The whole data structure is visually represented in figure 1, where

the first-order concepts present an indication of codes found. The extensive codebook can be

found in Appendix IV. By comparing the findings with existing literature, internal validity is

being build (Eisenhardt, 1989) and explanations are being developed (van Aken et al., 2012;

Bacharach, 1989). The answer to the research question is provided in the conclusion.

Furthermore, limitations and strengths of the case study will be acknowledged (Yin, 2009).

Results

The results focus on answering the research question ‘How do social entrepreneurs manage dualities within the social enterprise?’. To facilitate a comprehensible and orderly presentation of the findings, the results are structured around four categories derived from the data, as shown in Table 5 of the methods section. The within-case analysis is presented before the cross-case analysis.

Case 1: Rebottled

Last year, Rebottled won the first prize of the ‘Social Impact Lab’ of PriceWaterCoopers and will therefore receive two years of advice and 5000 euro’s. Furthermore, they found an ‘angel investor’, which increases their possibilities for growth. Despite this, the biggest issue Rebottled is dealing with remains obtaining financial support to realize a large scale-up of the company.

Organization. The organizational aspects at Rebottled contain tensions related to the legal form, financial aspects, impact and structure of the organization. The social mission of Rebottled is to help beneficiaries and recycle wine bottles. From a social perspective, the founder first tried to support beneficiaries himself. Currently, they collaborate with the Salvation Army, a charity that supports beneficiaries on the job. From a business venture perspective, Rebottled is a ‘sole trader’, but in a process to transfer towards a limited company.

“It is easier to receive a loan in that way” (RB2). As opposed to sole trade companies, for

which there are barely funds applicable. This tension is managed by getting professional advice

from a large company. “If we want to be a limited company, we have to think about a lot of

things. Several companies are unable to give us a definite advice, because we are in a kind of

a special construction. That’s why we have a meeting with the legal team of ***, that is going

to tell us what to do” (RB1). Furthermore, to cope with the financial social-business tension

Rebottled faces, the collaboration with the Salvation Army started. As the collaboration with

the Salvation Army is partly based on subsidies of disadvantaged employees, Rebottled is

indirectly dependent on this. This is confirmed by all interviewees. From a business venture

perspective, Rebottled wants to become independent of government support. By focusing on

growth and searching for financial support, they try to manage this duality. “We are trying to

accomplish this via funds and we found an investor. We hope that this will help us in setting the

first steps, and hopefully the ability to pay for things ourselves in the future!” (RB3). Rebottled

supports disadvantaged employees towards the labor market and focusses on a circular economy. However, from a business venture perspective “We do need the profit” (RB4). To solve this duality, Rebottled focusses on growth. “The bigger we get; the more impact we can make” (RB2).

Workforce. The disadvantaged employees fit the social mission. However, Rebottled does cope with severe problems related to these employees. “It has happened that someone smashed twenty or ten wine bottles around” (RB2). However, from a business venture perspective, the employees are less efficient. “Because, you do work with people with a certain distance towards the work field. So, their work structure and efficiency is different from what you would expect from a normal employee. Because of this, the product capacity is just lower”

(RB4). In order to cope with this tension, Rebottled wants to automatize the process by buying a machine, which will lead to reduced work pressure for employees and will be able to guarantee a more stable product capacity. Furthermore, an additional workforce is available for Rebottled. The Salvation Army has the possibility to ask a flex pool of employees, when necessary, for production purposes. Furthermore, the employees and interns of Rebottled are also able to produce glasses. The employees are highly involved in the company. For example,

“I work fifty to sixty hours a week. I am just constantly thinking about it. That is intense” (RB1).

From a business venture perspective, Rebottled is unable to pay the employees. To cope with this tension, Rebottled hires interns. Rebottled employs highly-involved interns. “Because we have a sustainable and social aspect, people are willing to come here every day. Because they believe in the idea and find the meaning of it more valuable than the financial rewards” (RB3).

From a business venture perspective, an advantage of interns is that they do not obtain salary, which saves money. However, interns do have disadvantages, as they are not around that long.

Rebottled’ founder coped with this, by looking for a co-owner that is staying with the company.

“It helps that I found a partner. Because I do not believe that you can run a company on your own. That is really hard” (RB1).

Product. From a social mission, disadvantaged employees are learning to attend work

again. Mistakes are being made during the production process. “Some people can’t talk and

work at the same time. They are sanding glass for half an hour, while this should only take two,

three minutes” (RB3). From a business venture dimension, an unstable production capacity is

difficult. “It is hard to estimate how many glasses are being made, it is not a factory in that

sense, they are people. You must consider that the same person that makes two glasses a day,

makes five glasses another day. It differs per day per person” (RB2).

External Collaborations. From a social dimension, the customer is interested in the social and sustainable story of Rebottled. “Primarily, the client just wants a glass with a social and sustainable story. They do not focus on the finishing touch” (RB3). This is confirmed by the coordinator and COO. From a business venture perspective, customers sometimes find the price too high. “I think they find it too expensive, because they are also working on cost efficiency. They do not want to pay too much” (RB1). Rebottled copes with this by emphasizing their sustainable and social mission in the media. Furthermore, by creating high-class pictures of their glasses, they aim to give the glasses a more sophisticated look.

Case 2: Het Schathuis

Het Schathuis has a close collaboration with Studio Bloesems since September 2017. This resulted in more development options for beneficiaries, as they can work at the lunch café and in the leather atelier.

Organization. The organizational aspects at Het Schathuis contain tensions related to the legal form, financial aspects, impact and structure of the organization. The core mission of Het Schathuis is to support beneficiaries. This is realized by opening a social lunch café, where beneficiaries can learn. Formally, Het Schathuis is known by the Chamber of Commerce as a charity. This fits their social mission. “From the [legal form] charity, Het Schathuis is founded.

And the clients, or as we call them employees, are legally signed-in at the charity” (SH4). From

a business venture perspective, Het Schathuis exploits ‘sole trader’ as a legal form, since this

offers advantages for running a lunch café. To manage their dual-mission, Het Schathuis created

a dual construction whereby these two legal forms are combined. From a social perspective,

Het Schathuis wants to enlarge their impact. This is done by supporting beneficiaries within the

lunch cafe and a charity in Uganda: “The aim of the charity is that it grows, and is able to do

support the charity in Uganda as well.” (SH2). Furthermore, several overarching goals are

mentioned. For example, the founder mentions the social function of Het Schathuis within the

neighborhood. This is confirmed by an employee “We want to add value in the neighborhood,

bring them in contact” (SH3). Seen from a business venture dimension, all interviewees

mention that profit is needed to survive. “You run a business, so you have to be economically

viable” (SH3). Het Schathuis manages this duality of impact-profit by focusing on

reinvestments: “If we make profit, we reinvest it in something for our company. So, I think

making profit is beautiful. Yes” (SH3). As SH4 explains: “It is about balance between impact

and profit. The more profit you make, the more you can invest in the impact”. There are also

financial tensions. Het Schathuis relies on several subsidies, as they employ disadvantaged employees. However, from a business venture perspective, the lunch café itself should run break-even. “You don’t want to create a deficit. But we do not have a profit objective” (SH5).

This tension is managed by saving money on expenditures for the lunch-café. This is realized by paying in kind (e.g. in exchange for free lunch), buying more at once and saving on machines expenditures: “For example this machine (..). We currently have a machine meant for consumers instead of businesses. But is does work well. The only thing is, in half a year, or three months, it will be broken. Because it is not meant for the catering industry. (..) but yes, then that’s it for now. We just have to save for large expenditures like that [a new machine is 1300 euro’s]” (SH2).

Workforce. The workforce of Het Schathuis includes beneficiaries, employees, interns and volunteers. From a social mission perspective, Het Schathuis employs beneficiaries. These disadvantaged employees cope with individual problems and are unable to handle too much stress. “Most of them have a mental disorder, varying from autism to borderline” (SH3). From a business venture perspective, the beneficiaries are less efficient. They are unable to work during weekends, have difficulties coping with work pressure and work slower to prevent mistakes. “We do notice that if they [our employees] work under pressure, things often go wrong” (SH5). Het Schathuis is coping with this tension by working with an additional workforce. This enables Het Schathuis to host customers outside regular opening hours. “We do open for meetings and birthday parties in the weekend. (..). The only thing is, we manage these activities on our own, without the disadvantaged employees” (SH2). In the future, students could be hired to host the lunch café during weekends. The permanent staff of Het Schathuis is highly involved, this is shown in permanent availability and high feelings of responsibility. As one social worker states: “If my phone rings at 11 o’clock at night because there is a problem, then I do not think 'just let them call, I will be there at 9 o’clock in the morning'. I’m always working. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And in my opinion, that is something that comes with the job”. However, from a business venture perspective, the employees can’t always be paid. “Most of the time I work here voluntary. That also saves Het Schathuis salary costs” (SH3). In order to cope with this duality, Het Schathuis works with creative solutions. Only one employee is paid a fulltime salary as in-kind payments occur and work experience is valuable for other employees. The motivation of the founder herself states

“I do not need income from this business, I just want to prove that this idea works”.

Furthermore, Het Schathuis works with volunteers and interns “I [the intern] just help whenever

I am needed. I basically help with everything that is necessary” (SH5). This mixed group of interns and volunteers sometimes experience difficulties themselves. “We have volunteers that are just… I find normal an odd word, but that are normal. But we also have volunteers that have [a mental disease such as] borderline. We also have an intern that was involved in an accident, and now experiences problems with walking and speaking. But you know, everyone deserves a chance. (..)” (SH2). From a business venture perspective, volunteers are perceived as a free workforce, since they require no salary. They add value to the company by taking- over tasks and working after opening hours. However, they are often around for a shorter period.

Furthermore, they are not needed on quiet days, such as Monday or Tuesday. In order to cope with this tension, Het Schathuis employs volunteers during busy days or after opening hours.

“Volunteers often help on busy days, or when there is a reservation after opening hours” (SH3).

Product. The main product het Schathuis sells is lunch. The production process is fully conducted by the workforce. From a social perspective, Het Schathuis works with a learning workforce. Therefore, there can be irregularities regarding the product. Examples are wrong orders, different looks of the product and a longer delivery time. As the founder states:

“Sometimes your cappuccino is skew, or your grilled cheese sandwich. But does it taste different because of that? No!”. From a business venture perspective, the lifecycle of tools needed to run the cafe is shortened. Beneficiaries and employees are unfamiliar with the machines, leading to higher costs. In order to cope with this tension, Het Schathuis adjusted their processes. They found a way to lower stress for beneficiaries and work with lower quality and therefore less expensive machines.

External Collaborations. From a social perspective, Het Schathuis has a close

collaboration with a health administration office and Studio Bloesems, the leather atelier. The

leather atelier employs beneficiaries, which results in more development opportunities for

beneficiaries. The health administration office helps with all administration-related tasks of Het

Schathuis. From a business venture perspective, Het Schathuis is unable to pay for these

services. In order to manage this duality, a unique solution is found. Het Schathuis makes use

of their resources, as they have two spare offices on the first floor. “The leather atelier uses

our office on the first floor, in exchange for offering spots for disadvantaged employees of Het

Schathuis. We receive budget from this, and she [founder of the leather atelier] has an office to

do her work” (SH5). “I wasn’t allowed to rent this place to someone, but then I thought, I am

not renting this place to someone else, she [lady from the administration office] is doing my

administration” (SH1). Another important collaboration is the collaboration with customers.

Customers are involved with Het Schathuis, they are described as a certain customer type which visit mainly because of the social story. “There was one lady, I think she is a psychiatrist and lives in the neighborhood. She literally said: we chose you because of the people you employ.

We would love them to be around on that day [her wedding day]” (SH1). However, from a business venture perspective, customers also expect a certain economic value. Het Schathuis does receive complaints, via Facebook or in real life “Yes. Sometimes we do get complaints.

Not often, but sometimes they say that it takes a bit too long” (SH5). In order to cope with this, Het Schathuis tries to communicate their social story and reframe expectations. “We stay who we are. We explain what we do, what our background is and that we are a social lunch cafe.

But we do not offer people discounts or that sort of things. No.” (SH3).

Case 3: Van Hulley

Currently, Van Hulley is exploring options in order to grow. They now sew boxer shorts from old blouses, that customers hand-in. Furthermore, their office is located in a building that will be demolished within this year. Therefore, they must look for relocation in the near future.

Organization. The organizational aspects within Van Hulley include financial, impact, legal form and structure related tensions. From a social perspective, Van Hulley is dependent of subsidies in order to run the company. They aim to generate more impact by keeping subsidy as low as possible. Their vision is that if they do not apply for the subsidy, other social entrepreneurs can benefit from it. This is also seen from a business venture perspective, as they aim to run a self-sustainable business. As the manager social and production states “I do think it is worth the effort to grow. It is the only way to achieve the mission we have, to be financial independent and achieve our social statements. Therefore, we need money”. A difficulty that arises is that most investors look for a high return on investment. The tension that arises is solved by looking for other solutions to become financially healthy. “If we grow, we can create a circle. Therefore, we won't need subsidy. That will mean double profit for the society. No subsidy and no unemployment benefits” (VH3). This is realized by searching for private investors. The goal of Van Hulley is helping disadvantaged women to the labor market.

However, measuring the exact impact they deliver is difficult. “If an employee gets more self-

confident, or becomes more self-reliable, or enlarges their network... How do you quantify these

benefits? Is that worth 10.000 euro? No!” (VH2). Furthermore, Van Hulley wants to enlarge

their social impact, for example, by achieving 100% circularity in their product. From a

business venture perspective, Van Hulley needs profit to survive. “We have to produce in order

to support our financial status (..)” (VH3). This profit-impact tension is managed by

professionalization. They currently measure their social impact by using a tailor-made system.

Furthermore, they specifically choose to focus on impact first. “We go for impact over profit”

(VH2). The dual-mission of Van Hulley shows in their legal form. Van Hulley employs disadvantaged women and they need funds in order to survive. In the Dutch legal system, a

‘charity’ would best fit their mission. “We do suffer from it, especially when I founded Van Hulley. There are several funds that wouldn’t provide access to money, if your legal form was not a charity” (VH1). However, from a business venture perspective Van Hulley states “Why are we no charity but a limited company? Because we do believe that social and commercial can go together. Van Hulley is not just about charity” (VH1). Because of this, Van Hulley has to cope with several challenges, such as not receiving the same benefits as charities do. Van Hulley copes with this by setting up creative constructions. Van Hulley has a flexible organization structure, with an informal atmosphere. Employees, interns and volunteers are stimulated to do something they like in a way that they decide themselves. “Everyone is free in whatever they do. Things have to get done, but how you get it done doesn't matter”. From a business venture perspective, standardization of processes could be improved. For example,

“Customers often make the same mistakes. By introducing email templates, you can save yourself time” (VH3). In order to manage this, Van Hulley is going through a professionalization process, where several processes are now written down by the office manager.

Workforce. From a social mission perspective, Van Hulley employs disadvantaged women, in order to help them towards the labor market. These women face several problems.

All respondents mentioned language barriers, cultural differences and several individual problems. From a business venture perspective, these women are less efficient employees.

Almost all of them had to learn how to sew. Van Hulley experienced early drop-outs and

furthermore these disadvantaged women are not available during holidays and on Tuesdays and

Fridays, as they are attending school. Van Hulley manages this social-economic duality by

professionalization of the selection process and attracting volunteers and interns to remain

productive in periods where these women are not available for work. “By introducing more

extensive intakes and pre-selection in the communication about Van Hulley, it was easier to

determine who was and who wasn’t a fit for the Van Hulley project” (VHD11). Van Hulley is

managed by a team of three full-time employees, which are all highly involved in the job. The

data shows a high sense of responsibility and intrinsic motivation to work at Van Hulley. As

VH2 states: “The work comes with great responsibility. That’s what you feel. That gives

satisfaction”. However, from a business venture perspective a high workload is present for the employees. This shows in unpaid overtime, business relying on a small team and financial inability to hire more employees. As the founder said: “If our manager is involved in an accident and breaks her leg, we immediately have a problem. I don’t know how we can solve that”. Van Hulley manages this tension by employing an additional workforce of interns and employees. As the office manager stated: “Some things take a lot of extra time (…) we see if we can let our interns take-over some tasks, such as the website”. Van Hulley works with interns and volunteers. They are highly involved in the company. Some of the volunteers and interns have a disadvantaged position. Therefore, they need extra guidance. From a business venture perspective, the quality of interns, and therefore the value they have for the company, differs. Adding to this, drop-outs do happen. Furthermore, interns and volunteers need guidance from the employees. Adding to this, some volunteers do not like the role of ‘employee’, such as giving guidance to the disadvantaged women. These social-business dualities are managed by letting interns choose how they organize their internship. Furthermore, employees monitor whether volunteers still like their tasks, and take actions if this is not the case.

Product. Van Hulley sells a circular boxer short, made by disadvantaged women. That entails their social value. However, the product is also of economic value. They aim to offer a qualitative product, that foresees in scarcity. “You can support a charity and transfer some money, but here you can get a nice boxer short and you immediately have the feeling that you did something right. On all aspects. We are so spoiled that... Everyone has money and everyone has the basic needs. We deliver something extra. Something that you can hardly buy. And if you wear it you think, I am doing a good thing and I have a cool product. So I think that's what makes us special” (VH1). This tension is managed by emphasizing and focusing on the added value of the product. Examples are that “everyone is welcome in our office” (VH3), “we approach customers really personal, informal (..)” (VH4) and “we are providing the customer with a need that can hardly be found in a nice product” (VH1). The workforce of Van Hulley is learning the sewing process from scratch, which does lead to mistakes. “In the beginning they can't sew, but we want to deliver a good product to the customer, so that is hard” (VH3).

From a business venture perspective, Van Hulley suffers an unstable production capacity. The production time per boxer differs “People do ask, ‘how long does it take to make a boxer?’

sometimes it takes three hours, other times it takes half an hour” (VH1). Furthermore, Van

Hulley is unable to focus on productivity and suffers from a low production capacity around

summer. In order to cope with this tension, Van Hulley uses communication and extra help.

They email customers if delivery time is taking longer than expected. Moreover, interns, volunteers and employees are helping out in order to enlarge the production capacity. The product is marketed in both social and economic ways. From a social perspective, Van Hulley is gaining recognition for their social message. They have won prizes and are regularly present at rotaries and markets. This adds to their social story gaining recognition for a larger public.

However, from a business venture perspective, Van Hulley tries to market a product that should be bought because of the economic value. Currently, sustainability is gaining more attention than ever. Van Hulley’s product fits the spirit of the current trend. Furthermore, Van Hulley adds value by marketing a strongly personalized product. For example, “People hand-in blouses with a personal story, of people that passed away or from their marriage” (VHO).

They manage this dual statement by aiming to market both messages. For example, women are brought to presentations to tell the social story, but they also bring boxers to show a qualitative good product.

Collaborations. Customers are described as positive people, by almost all respondents.

They are aware of the social story and are highly involved. “A customer personally brought- over her blouse and offered to pick it up as well. In that way, Van Hulley could save out shipping costs” (VHO). However, as VH1 states: “Customers pay a certain price [for the boxer]. So they have the right to expect something”. VH2 described a phone call were a customer had additional requirements for his boxer, because 29,50 is a lot of money. In order to cope with this duality, Van Hulley communicates and reframes expectations by explaining the social story. Furthermore, if customers are not satisfied, Van Hulley’s asks for a second chance and provide gift cards. “We do not want any negative customers; we do a lot for that” (VH3).

Cross-case analysis

In general, the results show that social-business tensions are prominently present amongst every case. The within-case analysis shows that every case experienced tensions within the four main categories. Of the twelve aggregated themes, eight are supported within each case. Amongst each aggregated theme, social mission and business venture dimensions are found, as well as how these tensions are managed. Remarkable results are presented for each category.

Organization. Tensions related to organization structure are found only at Van Hulley,

where it involves a tension between flexibility and standardization. Regarding the tension

related to the legal form, results show that challenges between social and economic goals occur

at every research site. Remarkable is that all three organizations found another unique

construction to deal with this tension. The tension around impact results in an impact-profit tension amongst every case. Noteworthy is that every organization mentions an overarching goal, meaning to create more impact than just within their organization. Van Hulley and Rebottled focus on growth in order to increase their impact, whereas Het Schathuis focusses on reinvestment of profit within their organization. The last tension related to organizational aspect is the financial tension. Each research site is currently dependent on subsidy. Rebottled faces difficulties with their financial credibility and manages this by focusing on professionalization.

Het Schathuis wants to limit losses within the social lunch cafe and handles this by focusing on saving money. Lastly, Van Hulley aims to run a self-sustainable business, and therefore focusses on unique constructions to obtain this position.

Workforce. The workforce category includes tensions related to beneficiaries, employees and interns/volunteers. Although difficulties with disadvantaged employees and interns/volunteers are mentioned, results show that this ‘additional workforce’ is used to cope with tensions regarding the workforce. The interns and volunteers can take-over regular tasks, support the production process if beneficiaries are unavailable and do not obtain salary. A remarkable finding is that at Rebottled and Het Schathuis, most of the regular staff are unpaid employees as well. At Rebottled this includes the founder, and at Het Schathuis the founder mentions to receive her income from other jobs. Furthermore, at Het Schathuis and Van Hulley disadvantaged interns and volunteers are also employed, showing that their impact is reaching further than just the beneficiaries.

Product. All three organizations cope with tensions related to the production process.

The learning workforce is a consequence of working with beneficiaries, which all companies acknowledge. Het Schathuis faces a shortened lifecycle of tools and copes this by adjustment of processes, for example by using cheaper machines to control damage. Van Hulley experiences an unstable production capacity: every year a new group of women starts and furthermore, they are not available during holidays. They cope with this by communication with their customers and by asking for extra help at volunteers/employees/interns. At Rebottled they cope with an unstable production capacity by automatizing the production-process.

Furthermore, when necessary employees conduct the production themselves.

External collaborations. The tension between socially involved customers and

customers that have high expectations is managed by communication with customers at all

enterprises. Tensions around collaborations are only observed at Het Schathuis and at Van