This paper aims to analyze what social enterprise qualities boost the likelihood of creating interorganizational interactions with academia, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs).
The authors conducted a mixed-method study for the purpose of development. The first stage was a quantitative exploratory analysis of 1,042 sustainable community businesses in Brazil, aiming to identify variables influencing the relationship between social enterprises (SEs) and Quadruple Helix players. The second stage used these quantitative results to guide unstructured interviews with five experts.
The authors reveal 30 variables were statistically significant, with nine diminishing the likelihood of SEs forming relationships with academia, governments and CSOs, 20 enhancing such prospects, and one attribute potentially augmenting it for one entity while diminishing it for another. Among the findings, it was noted that the participation of women in SEs is an attribute that facilitates relationships with government and academia. On the other hand, youth participation on the board fosters relationships with CSOs.
This study will hopefully clarify, firstly for SEs, which players they are most likely to relate to, depending on their characteristics. For academia, government and civil society, reflections are offered that can help develop projects, programs and support for those SEs that seek such support, thus generating a more effective relationship with better outcomes.
The findings help the advancement of knowledge in the area by investigating a problem still poorly defined, namely, the relationship between SEs and organizations from different sectors. Furthermore, there are still few studies that address the realities of developing countries. As a result, the purpose of this study was to make a theoretical contribution by providing parameters for SEs characteristics that induce relationships with organizations representing academia, government or civil society players, corroborating the need to understand the characteristics that can facilitate the construction of partnerships with social enterprise and whether these partnerships can reduce SEs challenges.
