Identifying the Drivers of Social Entrepreneurial Impact: Theoretical Development and an Exploratory Empirical Test of SCALERS

Abstract

The scaling of social entrepreneurial impact is an important issue in the field of social entrepreneurship. While researchers have focused relatively little theoretical and empirical attention on scaling, a recently proposed set of drivers of scaling – incorporated into what has been labeled the SCALERS model – may provide guidance for new theoretical and empirical work on scaling of social impact. In this study, prior work on the drivers of scaling is extended by adding to the theoretical foundations upon which the SCALERS model is developed and by providing an initial empirical test of the SCALERS model. Initial empirical support is found for the SCALERS model of scaling social entrepreneurial impact.

Key Words:

• Social entrepreneurship
• scaling
• organization capabilities
• social impact
• nonprofit
• social enterprise
• social capital
• human capital
• political capital
• new venture growth

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the helpful cooperation of Community Wealth Ventures, the Social Enterprise Alliance, and REDF in conducting the survey reported in this paper.