An Exploratory Study on Financial Resources Scaling and Performance of Social Enterprises in India

Abstract

The limitations of the government and current economic system deprived socio-economic opportunities to certain sections of the communities. The non-profit sector, expected to fill this gap, has been afflicted with fiscal constraints. Furthermore, donors emphasis on greater efficiency has influenced the non-profit sector to adopt new managerial practices and pursue alternative sources of income, in effect altering their behaviour to social enterprises. Therefore, social enterprises are considered as a credible alternative to non-profits as well as state-welfare programs, and demonstrated their impact on health, education, skill development, and other relevant areas to enhance the well-being of vulnerable communities. The thesis aims to explore the financial resources, scaling and performance of social enterprises in India, and pursues five research goals enumerated below: 1. To configure social enterprises and explore differences across clusters on financial resources, scaling resources and performance. 2. To study the associations and interactions between capabilities, resources and overall performance. 3. To examine the role of internal capabilities on scaling impact and financial sustainability using the SCALERS model. 4. To explore the capital structure of social enterprises with respect to resources and performance. 5. To develop a benchmarking model for social enterprises using financial indicators. Section-8 companies (Companies Act 2013) meet the definition of social enterprises adopted in the study and Section-8 companies are population of this study, because their legal provisions are similar to social enterprises in USA, UK, France, and Italy. A closed-ended questionnaire was prepared based on a literature review, the pilot data was collected, feedback from the participants was taken, expert opinion was sought, and then changes were made to the questionnaire before proceeding to the data collection...