INTRODUCTION:

Importance of social entrepreneurship has been proved beyond doubt in last two decades both in the context of developed and developing economies.

Globally, in current times researches on social enterprising are becoming more and more prominent and also in India research on social enterprising have been gaining momentum. The need for social enterprises arises from the fact that they innovate and experiment, are designed to fill in the gap in existing services that cannot be provided by the public or private sectors. Moreover social enterprises also reach socially excluded people by providing volunteer, training and employment opportunities.

“Social entrepreneurship is perceived as panacea to poverty alleviation and transformation of the society” (Alvord, Brown, and Letts, 2003, pp. 263-267). Therefore, social enterprises are an appropriate response to the exclusion of large social groups from mainstream social life (Dacin, Dacin and Matear, 2010, p. 42; Di Domenico, Haugh and Tracey, 2010, pp. 684-687).

Social enterprise master in the well-being of individuals and societies specially marginalized groups. For- profit social enterprises use commercial strategies with a mission to bring in social impact for the people living at the base of pyramid while intending to make financial return as well.

Social enterprises have emerged as social problem solver which use a socially innovative business model for the requisite social transformation and change in the whole world.

Social enterprises promotes social innovation while dealing with complex social issues which results in socially acceptable and sustained business strategies.

India has seen big rise in the number of social entrepreneurs in the past decade (GIIN’s growing list of Indian social entrepreneurs, 2019). Social enterprises are gaining momentum in Indian social enterprise eco system, but presently we have a an unstructured social enterprise sector in India. Moreover the modus-operandi of social enterprises in India is not sufficiently known and as of now it is difficult to draw a comprehensive picture of their processes.

Social enterprising sector in India presently is relatively an under-explored field and there is a dearth of research in this domain. A few researches have been done over social enterprises in India which mainly focussed on success stories of some social entrepreneurs and some other highlighted effectiveness of social enterprises and problems social enterprises are facing while operating in India.

Present scene of social enterprising domain in India presents a huge scope for rigorous, quantitative research in order to enhance the applicability of social enterprising research in India.

Despite growing importance of social entrepreneurship in India, the literature in this subject is still fragmented and is at its nascent stage, especially little research has been done on key success factors of social enterprises in India.

Social Enterprises - Definitions:

“They are orthodox businesses with social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximize profit for shareholders and owners.” (Harding, R.,2004).

“Social enterprises are private organizations dedicated to solving social problems, serving the disadvantaged, and providing socially important goods that were not, in their judgment, adequately provided by public agencies or private markets.” (Dees J. G.,1998).

“A social enterprise as an organization engaged in business activities for achieving social goals.” (Mair and Marti,2006).

“Social enterprising relates to individuals and business entities engaged in entrepreneurial activities specifically for a social purpose.” (Certo and Miller, 2008).

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

This study attempts to recognize and synthesize key success factors of social enterprises in India.

Paper Type:

Conceptual paper. “A conceptual paper explains the main points to be studied, the key factors, concepts or variables, and presumes relationships among them”. (Miles and Huberman, 1994).

RSEARCH METHODOLOGY:

This is a secondary research and is based on review of present literature comprising success factors for social enterprises in India. A detailed study of literature concerning success factors for social enterprises in India has been done. All the factors related with the success of social enterprises which have been recommended by the academicians and the practitioners from time to time were systematically identified, categorized and then synthesized into a framework. 25 success factors are studied and there after reduced to 9 key success factors basis their importance to social enterprises and their repeated manifestations in the literature reviewed.

The researcher highlighted top 25 success factors towards this study. More specifically, researcher reviewed the literature on social enterprising concepts and definitions, operational processes, Indian social enterprising eco-system, acceptance and success of social enterprises in India, hurdles faced by social enterprises in India, social entrepreneurship education, social mission of social enterprises, and the focus of researcher was literature pertinent to for-profit social enterprises in India.

As it has been mentioned earlier in this paper that there is a dearth of corresponding information regarding the theme of the research, researcher has drawn conclusions based on the literature review of reports of diverse nature from the domain of social enterprising in India. These information materials were mainly extracted from published and a few unpublished reports in journals, magazines, newspapers and research studies available in public domain on internet and offline. The researcher has reviewed 130 such reports pertaining to Indian social enterprises.

The researcher went by following steps while reviewing the existing literature on success factors of social enterprises in India.

A) Protocol development.

B) Inclusion based on title and keywords.

C) Inclusion based on abstract.

D) Inclusion based on conclusions and findings.

E) Final selection.

F) Synthesis.

This process has been exercised by researcher while shortlisting top 25 success factors (Table-1) basis there repetitive mention and manifestations in the reviewed literature.

Table-1 Top 25 Success Factors

S. No.	Top 25 Success Factors	Manifestations in numbers of reports reviewed
1	Book Keeping	88
2	Business planning	127
3	Collaboration with public sector	104
4	Distribution and networking	105
5	Engaging local community	64
6	Innovative	103
7	Internal communication	68
8	Learning opportunities	59
9	Legal / regulatory environment	122
10	Management expertise	91
11	Measurement of social impact	103
12	Motivation and commitment of employed people	108
13	Organization culture	82
14	Passion for social enterprising	89
15	Retaining key talent	98
16	Risk appetite	78
17	Social business model	83
18	Social business value	82
19	Social capital	72
20	Social entrepreneurship orientation	124
21	Social mission	119
22	Stakeholder collaboration	101
23	Sustainability	97
24	Tech savviness	99
25	Vision	81
No.	Top 25 Success Factors	Manifestations in numbers of reports reviewed
1	Book Keeping	88
2	Business planning	127
3	Collaboration with public sector	104
4	Distribution and networking	105
5	Engaging local community	64
6	Innovative	103
7	Internal communication	68
8	Learning opportunities	59
9	Legal / regulatory environment	122
10	Management expertise	91
11	Measurement of social impact	103

As depicted in Table-1 top 25 success factors have been shortlisted as per their manifestations in the literature reviewed (130 reports/paper were reviewed). There after these 25 success factors have been ranked to arrive at 9 key success factors (Table-2). These 9 key success factors were manifested in 100 or more reports out of 130 total reports/papers reviewed.

Table-2 Nine Key Success Factors

Rank	9 Key Success	Manifestations in numbers of reports reviewed
1	Business planning	127
2	Social entrepreneurship orientation	124
3	Legal / regulatory environment	122
4	Social mission	119
5	Motivation and commitment of employed people	108
6	Distribution and networking	105
7	Collaboration with public sector.	104
8	Innovative financing	103
9	Measurement of social impact	103

These 9 success factors were considered as the key success factors for success of any social enterprise operating in India in the literature reviewed.

Findings:

The study revealed 9 key success factors as contributing to the success of social enterprises namely business planning, entrepreneurship orientation, distribution and networking, innovative financing, legal/regulatory environment, motivation and commitment of employed people, social mission, measurement of social impact, and collaboration with public sector.

DISCUSSIONS:

Nine (9) Key success factors (Table-2) and their importance as revealed by this study are discussed below:

1 - Business Planning:

A robust social business planning is a very important and strategic tool for social entrepreneurs. Proper business planning for social enterprises not only helps social entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps required for them to make their social business ideas succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-term and long-term objectives. This key success factor comes under enterprise processes and capabilities.

2 - Social entrepreneurship orientation:

Unless and until social entrepreneurs are motivated by social problems and challenges, inspiration, and previous personal experiences they can not have required passion to drive their social enterprises in the long term. Social entrepreneurship orientation is a mandatory behaviour construct of social entrepreneurs. This key success factor is an individual characteristics trait.

3 - Legal/regulatory environment:

Indian social enterprise eco-system presently lacks a standardised legal structure for social enterprises. However, a social entrepreneur can set up his/her for-profit social venture as sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, private firm and co-operative entity. And, non-profits- or charitable organizations- can register themselves under the Indian Trusts Act (1882); section 25 of Companies Act (1956); State Society registration. This key success factor comes under external dynamics.

4 - Social Mission:

This is of paramount importance, as without properly devised social mission a social enterprise may become only a primary-profit oriented company. A social enterprise is distinguished from a conventional business because it is established to tackle a social problem as its primary objective. And, this primary objective becomes its social mission. This key success factor comes under enterprise processes and capabilities.

5 - Motivation and commitment of employed people:

In social enterprises employees need to feel like they are a part of a community which is working for a greater cause other than profit-making only. They should have a sense of belongingness with the social mission of the organization and management of the organization need to align employees’ pay structure accordingly. This key success factor is both an individual characteristics trait and also comes under enterprise processes and capabilities.

6 - Distribution and Networking:

Establishing a reliable distribution network gives a strong competitive advantage and help social enterprises stay competitive. Some of the major benefits of distribution network for social enterprises are reduced costs, more transparency and collaboration, wider customer reach and faster growth. Social networks promotes business growth by reducing transaction costs, creating business opportunities, and generating knowledge base for social enterprises. This key success factors come under enterprise processes and capabilities.

7 - Collaboration with public sector:

As India needs huge number of social enterprises with innovative solutions to the society's burning social problems in the areas of sanitation, education, water conservation, primary health, carbon emissions and other environmental problems, a collaboration with public corporations for social enterprises is a must to reach the wider audience.

8 - Innovative financing:

Innovative financing solution will promote ease of doing business for social enterprises. Their financing requirement are quite different than that of main stream profit ventures. This success factor comes under external dynamics.

9 - Measurement of social impact:

Making a social impact and its measurement are focal points of all social enterprises’ s strategy as they help them to know whether they are meeting their social mission and vision in the long-term. Moreover, measuring social impact will help them understand, manage and communicate the social value that their work creates. Measurement of social impact their social enterprises are making will enable them to know how effectively their products/services are reaching to their target audience. This key success factor comes under enterprise processes and capabilities.

CONCLUSION:

As per this study which undertook extensive literature review of 130 research papers/reports on social enterprising in the context of India, it has been found that social enterprises are major and active contributors to the development of communities and countries. They are perceived as creators of social change, they alleviate poverty, reduce unemployment rate, intentionally pursue environmental objectives, and promote economic growth and sustainability of local communities, and perform better than their main stream counterparts in this domain.

However, social enterprises are currently under tremendous pressure to generate social impact in an economically sustainable manner, in a highly unregulated, under developed social enterprise eco-system of India.

Moreover, achieving success is increasingly becoming difficult as social enterprises labour hard for funding, are unable to effectively generate revenue and lag behind their social mission.

Hence the identification of key factors behind the social enterprises’ success has to be one of the most important goals of their management. These key success factors determine the pathways for strategic decisions and future of social enterprise.

Moreover, an increased focus on these key success factors is a must, as these issues are crucial for social enterprises in India which presently face notable difficulties regarding their efficiency of their activities.

Usefulness of this Study:

The paper sheds light in a methodical way on key factors and determinants responsible for success of social enterprises in India. This study paves the way for further research on individual key factors in a social setting.

The paper can further be used by researchers to empirically test proportionate importance of key success factors of social enterprises.

It will also provide a theoretical background of the social enterprising research domain for future researchers, outline the breadth of research on a particular topic of interest, and provide answers to practical questions by understanding the existing research on a particular matter.

This study also gives significant insight to management of social enterprises in India on the factors that are vital to the success of their social enterprises.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors do not have any conflict of interest regarding this study.

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Received on 25.07.2022 Modified on 14.08.2022

Asian Journal of Management. 2022;13(4):299-304.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5763.2022.00051