More from these Authors

• Blog Post | Giving Thoughts (Conference Board blog) | July 22, 2014

  What Impact? Resist Taking Credit for Results You Can't Achieve

  Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

  Keywords: impact measurement; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result;

  Citation:

  Ebrahim, Alnoor, and V. Kasturi Rangan. "What Impact? Resist Taking Credit for Results You Can't Achieve." Giving Thoughts (Conference Board blog) (July 22, 2014).  View Details

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• Article | Research in Organizational Behavior | 2014

  The Governance of Social Enterprises: Mission Drift and Accountability Challenges in Hybrid Organizations

  Alnoor Ebrahim, Julie Battilana and Johanna Mair

  We examine the challenges of governance facing organizations that pursue a social mission through the use of market mechanisms. These hybrid organizations, often referred to as social enterprises, combine aspects of both charity and business at their core. In this paper we distinguish between two ideal types of such hybrids, differentiated and integrated, and we conceptualize two key challenges of governance they face: accountability for dual performance objectives and accountability to multiple principal stakeholders. We revisit the potential and limitations of recently introduced legal forms to address these challenges. We then theorize about the importance of organizational governance, and the role of governing boards in particular, in prioritizing and aligning potentially conflicting objectives and interests in order to avoid mission drift and to maintain organizational hybridity in social enterprises. Finally, we discuss future research directions and the implications of this work for rethinking traditional categories of organizations, namely business and charity.

  Keywords: social enterprise; governance; hybrid organizations; nonprofit; performance measurement; legal form; agency theory; stakeholder management; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Corporate Accountability;

  Citation:

  Ebrahim, Alnoor, Julie Battilana, and Johanna Mair. "The Governance of Social Enterprises: Mission Drift and Accountability Challenges in Hybrid Organizations." Research in Organizational Behavior 34 (2014): 81–100.  View Details

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• Article | California Management Review | Spring 2014

  What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance

  Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan

  Organizations with social missions, such as nonprofits and social enterprises, are under growing pressure to demonstrate their impacts on pressing societal problems such as global poverty. This article draws on several cases to build a performance assessment framework premised on an organization's operational mission, scale, and scope. Not all organizations should measure their long-term impact, defined as lasting changes in the lives of people and their societies. Rather, some organizations would be better off measuring shorter-term outputs or individual outcomes. Funders such as foundations and impact investors are better positioned to measure systemic impacts.

  Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Performance Evaluation;

  Citation:

  Ebrahim, Alnoor, and V. Kasturi Rangan. "What Impact? A Framework for Measuring the Scale & Scope of Social Performance." California Management Review 56, no. 3 (Spring 2014): 118–141.  View Details

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