Resource Mobilization of Social Entrepreneurs in Korea

Social enterprise is an organizational form designed to create social values by conducting business activities. While its nature as a distinctive form has been discussed, we have relatively little knowledge about how the organizing patterns of social enterprises, especially their external relationships, are associated with organizational adaptation. We focus on the sources of external relationships that are mobilized by social entrepreneurs and investigate how such external linkages are associated with organizational adaptation towards digital and carbon transition in social enterprises. By analyzing a sample of social enterprises in South Korea, we find that social entrepreneurs who mobilize social resources from government sectors are relatively well-prepared for digital transition while those who can mobilize resources from civil society are well-prepared for carbon transition. By contrast, resource mobilization from local community is negatively associated with digital as well as carbon transition readiness. We discuss the implications of our findings on the organizing of social enterprises. Our research contributes to our understanding on the relationship between external sources of resource mobilization and proclivity towards digital and carbon transition of social enterprise