Enterprising at the border: Social entrepreneurship leveraging at the crossroads of the public and for-profit realms.

This research intends to focus on how social enterprises are able to create both social and economic value, where for “social value” we include the concept of value generated by the implementation of social and health policies. It presents a case study analysis of a consortium of social cooperatives of the “A and B type”[1] named In Concerto, delivering social value in terms of social assistance and work integration. The focus in terms of recipients for services and integration of the consortium are the mentally ill. Epidemiologically, mental illness is a pathology that is steeply increasing, and the potential impact of services for treatment and social/work integration have therefore a strong and increasing impact on both the health and social policies of a given territory. Based on Hamel’s definition of a business model in terms of four pillars, namely core strategy, customer interface, strategic resources and value network (Hamel 2000), the analysis presents the developmental pattern of the organization from a strategic point of view and discusses its stepping stones and implications. The findings suggest that this successful social entrepreneurial organization proactively and systematically creates its own value network of partners, both public and private, develops resource strategies as an integral part of the business model and integrates the target group into the social value network. The value network concept has been recently proposed in various fields of research, in terms of potential to create competitive advantage (Stabell and Fjeldstadt 1998), or added value and cohesion of a strategic system (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996; Winther, 2001; Zott and Amit, 2002), a means for reaching collective goals (Todeva and Knoke 2002), or treating externalities (Economides 1996). Value networks can be differently defined. On one hand, they allow involved organizations to offer complementary goods on the supply side; on the other hand they establish positive network effects among consumers on the demand side, with the result of creating increasing stability for the network of partners itself, and with it more value creation and appropriation for participants. Our analysis presents an overview of the In Concerto case, relating its history and strategic development. Applying the value net framework for analysing an organization’s strategy dynamics (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996), the analysis shows how In Concerto developed in terms of: • a composite strategic system encompassing the social targets through both rehabilitation and work integration; • a tightly knitted relation with the public system in both the health and social services realms through the creation of a protected path of rehabilitation for mentally ill patients, achieving a reduction of social and health costs, better standards in the health care assistance, reduction of mentally ill in-patients; • a growing set of self-derived social cooperatives reinforcing the work integration mission and at the same time competing in the for-profit economic system, generating economic value in order to increase financing for the consortium; • a set of for-profit firms and initiatives variously engaged with the consortium (joint ventures, acquisitions) geared to increasing productivity and work occupation. Within this tight network, the study privileges the analysis of the interaction between In Concerto and public organizations, in order to point out the social and economic value created by this relation and the advantages in terms of social and health policy. The case thus unveils how a successful social enterprise can develop a business model that is based on integrating social and economic value development and sources over ontologically different partnerships that still constitute a stable value network