Research

WHAT ARE THE IDEAL MODELS FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NEW MEXICO?

Research team: Garima Sharma; Manuel Montoya; Audriana Stark; Wellington Spetic

Studies of social enterprises have grown significantly in recent decades. Social enterprises can be broadly defined as enterprises which use market mechanisms to create social impact. However, there is a dearth in our understanding of the role of context in defining social enterprise models. New Mexico, for example, is a complex social, cultural, and political space. It is characterized by abundant resources (both natural and cultural) and resilient systems that predate modern institutions, and at the same time, high income inequality and stratified poverty. In this research project, we are using qualitative research methodologies, including in-depth interviews with New Mexico ecosystem builders and social entrepreneurs to answer the following questions: What are the ideal models for social entrepreneurship in New Mexico? What are the underlying mechanisms that support social enterprise models? What place-based mechanisms that affect social entrepreneurship in New Mexico? By answering these questions, we seek to contribute to management practice and economic development in New Mexico, while building a robust theory around place and social entrepreneurship.

PLACE AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

Research team: Garima Sharma; Manuel Montoya; Audriana Stark; 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 reviewing the sparse literature that exists at the intersection of place and social entrepreneurship. We systematically coded the literature on social entrepreneurship for how they used place as a construct. Based on this coding, we delineate various ontologies of place and the mechanisms underlying the relationship between place and social impact. We juxtapose these ontologies and mechanisms with the rich literature on space/place from the field of cultural geography to propose four building blocks for future research: movement, power, language and emergence. These building blocks provide direction for novel and impactful future research on this topic and offer to management practice the different ways in which place shows up, implicitly and explicitly, in the work of social entrepreneurship.

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.

LOCAL CHALLENGES WITHIN AN EMERGING INSTITUTIONAL FIELD: B CORP MOVEMENT IN NEW MEXICO

Research team: Garima Sharma; Natalia Vidal; Wellington Spetic; Karen Patterson

Prior work on institutional field emergence has provided rich mechanisms to explain how and why fields form and shift. However, this work has not fully considered the local variance within the larger institutional field gaining convergence. As a result, we do not know how local actors, defined in this study by their geographical region, address the unique challenges of their local context while contributing to the convergence of the broader institutional field. To understand these dynamics, we focus on the B Corp movement in New Mexico. Specifically, we are studying the actions of central and peripheral actors within and between field-configuring events organized to further the B Corp movement in the state. Our study's potential contribution lies in theorizing how the local variance within a broader institutional field explains a social movement's success at the local level.

SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Research Team: Tamanna Chauhan; Urusha Thapa; Natalia Vidal

There has hardly been a more appropriate time to study what makes some firms more resilient than others. Resilient firms are able to effectively assimilate changes in their environments and develop responses that address the challenges of these new situations in transformative ways, allowing them to capitalize on survival threats. Firms have encountered numerous difficulties from the current pandemic, especially in their supply chains, and these disruptions hinder the flow of products and services through supply chains, exposing firms to operational and financial risks. Although supply chain disruptions can help firms strengthen their strategies for risk mitigation, the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic seem to be different, causing many unforeseen challenges. Interestingly, firms that have strong corporate responsibility or sustainability programs appear to be weathering the challenges brought forth by this pandemic better than those that do not invest in their stakeholders. In this study, we will look into supply chain resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic by investigating the following questions: (1) What dynamic capabilities make B Corps' supply chains more resilient than non-certified companies? And (2) do companies that adopt transformational leadership traits create more resilient supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic?