Research
A PLACE FOR IMPACT: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND PLACE-BASED ORGANIZING
Research team: Garima Sharma; Wellington Spetic; Audriana Stark; Jonathan Kimmitt
Existing social entrepreneurship research valorizes place-basedness and describes placelessness as problematic. However, adjacent literatures such as in cultural geography, provide a more nuanced picture. Using this insight as our point of departure, we ask why do social entrepreneurs organize their social enterprises and impact to be place-based or placeless? We answer this question by interviewing 39 social entrepreneurs in New Mexico. We found both place-based and placeless practices, which could be explained by how entrepreneurs saw self in relation to the place and the tensions they saw in place. Our findings have important implications for the literature on social entrepreneurship.
FURTHERING THE B CORP MOVEMENT: UNPACKING THE MECHANISMS UNDERLYING COLLECTIVE INSTITUTIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Research team: Natalia Vidal; Karen Patterson; Wellington Spetic
This study explores the development of the B Corp movement in New Mexico. We examine how the ecosystem that supports the growth of the B Corp movement in the state is created through the combined efforts of like-minded individuals and organizations. The results of this study will help practitioners and scholars understand how to successfully build communities that support business as a force for good.
BAD BENEFITS: CHALLENGES TO, AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF, THE B CORP MOVEMENT
Research team: Natalia Vidal; Karen Patterson; Wellington Spetic
This study investigates the challenges to the B Corp movement. Despite its numerous benefits, there can also be negative outcomes and barriers that prevent different stakeholders from joining the B Corp movement, such as the costs and resources necessary to certify as a B Corp. Our aim is to identify how the B Corp movement might negatively impact its participants and stakeholders and how to prevent these unintended consequences from happening by creating appropriate strategies.
PLACE AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA
Research team: Wellington Spetic
Despite the burgeoning literature on social enterprises, we do not fully understand place-based mechanisms underlying social enterprise models and impact. This omission is surprising given that social enterprises are contextually embedded, e.g., issues such as homelessness or biodiversity loss, addressed by social entrepreneurs, are issues of place. This research project addresses this omission in prior research by systematically reviewing the sparse literature that exists at the intersection of place and social entrepreneurship.
Past Research
HOW CAN IMPACT INVESTING WORK IN NEW MEXICO TO FUND EMERGING FOR-PROFIT SOCIAL ENTERPRISES?
Research team: Reilly White; Edith Linares
Impact investing is the investment practice of generating both financial returns and socio-environmental benefits. In contemporary finance, impact investing is viewed as part of the larger trend of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investments that seek to generate both high long-term returns and demonstrate beneficial impacts to society. While the amount of global financial assets currently subject to ESG/impact screening ranges from $23 trillion to $83 trillion, fund managers' evaluation criteria remain unstandardized and often subjective. What does this mean for New Mexican investors looking to fund new social enterprises? This research seeks to evaluate the existing literature on impact investing, create and analyze surveys with New Mexican entrepreneurs around the impact investing environment, and develop systematic criteria for evaluating impact investing in New Mexican firms.