The study of social enterprise and entrepreneurship has increasingly become a global phenomenon and an emerging discipline. Nevertheless, prior work has not fully explored the cultural context, paradoxical nature, and situational aspect of the business model of social enterprises through a dynamic, longitudinal perspective. Therefore, the present study fills in this research gap by exploring organizational and strategic elements associated with the evolution of the business model over time in an Asian social enterprise, the Children Are Us Social Welfare Foundation.
In addition to the 3C core values and visionary leadership, the Children Are Us Business Model emphasizes dynamic alignment of strategic insight and strategic execution to achieve superior organizational performance. Moreover, by integrating management theories and practices both in East and West, the Children Are Us strategically build and reconfigure dynamic capabilities of its business model through knowledge building, transferring, framing and filtering.
This article offers important theoretical and practical implications for enhancing our understanding of the key elements and reinvention of the business model in social enterprises.