Abstract
A comprehensive review of the social entrepreneurship literature on social entrepreneurship’s success in solving social challenges despite significant resource and capacity deficits raises questions, particularly regarding how capacities should be built to ensure long-term social and economic impact. Using the theory of organizational learning, this study analyzes the link between team exploratory and exploitative learning on social entrepreneurship orientation. The cross-sectional examination of 473 social enterprises in Ghana verifies our predictions regarding positive connections between the variables. The findings demonstrate that team exploratory learning has a stronger positive impact on social entrepreneurship orientation than team exploitative learning. From a managerial standpoint, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of social enterprises can demonstrate greater use of team exploratory and exploitative learning by devising exercises that push their teams outside of their comfort zones to actively engage in internal and external interactive discourse on team learning to substantially impact their social entrepreneurship orientation. From the ambidextrous perspective of social enterprises, circumventing the notable “failure” and “success” traps that occur with excessive exploration and exploitation respectively, demands a balance between the two for long-term impact on social entrepreneurship orientation. This study delves into the differentially positive function of team exploratory and exploitative learning on social entrepreneurship orientation, with the goal of overcoming the resource/capability bottleneck and boosting social market performance.
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The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This research project was supported by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) Talent Introduction Project, Research on the Balance Mechanism between Business and Public Welfare of Social Enterprises in Chinese Context, Project No.: KY2160000003 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Project No.: 72174107.
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Emmanuel Mensah Horsey (EMH), Professor Xiaobao Peng (XP), and Professor Shuliang Zhao (SZ) handled the conception and design of the study. EMH wrote the manuscript, handled the proofreading, and corrections under the supervision of XP. EMH and Xiaofan Song (XS) organized the database, data collection, and analysis as well as the writing of the methodology and results sections under the supervision of SZ. All authors approved the submitted version.
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Horsey, E.M., Song, X., Zhao, S. et al. Analyzing the effect of team exploratory and exploitative learning on Social entrepreneurship orientation. Curr Psychol 43, 954–968 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04505-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04505-4