Agenda

This event is part of VSM Lectures, a series of seminars given by top scholars from international universities and institutions, who are invited to present their research, related results and impact on societal issues.

Innovative solutions to grand challenges: social enterprises, scaling up and what can go wrong

VSM lecture held by Tommaso Ramus,  Professor of Sustainability & Social Accounting at ESSEC Business School, Cergy. 

The event is available also online via Gmeet

This study examines how social enterprises can scale-up while remaining consistent to their mission, focusing on the 30-year trajectory of ALPI, an Italian work integration social enterprise. Social enterprises face challenges in scaling-up due to resource scarcity. To access new resources, they have to manage the expectations of various resource providers, risking mission drift. The paper employs an inductive, longitudinal approach to analyze ALPI’s scaling-up trajectory and its handling of these challenges. The key finding is the role of bureaucratization in scaling-up. Bureaucratization involves processes of specialization (i.e., identifying roles focused on specific activities), formalization (i.e., redefining procedures to perform activities), and hierarchization (i.e., assigning authority over specific activities). These processes dynamically re-align external and internal expectations and objectives, enabling the acquisition of additional resources without deviating from the mission.

Tommaso Ramus is an associate professor in the Public and Private Policy Department at ESSEC Business School. In his research, Tommaso investigates how organizations can combine social value creation and wealth generation through innovative practices and processes. Tommaso also investigates how business organizations interact with external stakeholders and local communities to address grand challenges and drive a positive change in society.