Strategies for social venture growth: Governing the means‐ends dynamics of social impact

Abstract

AbstractGoverning the growth strategies of social ventures is one of the most significant challenges social entrepreneurs face. While social entrepreneurs strive for growth mainly to increase the social venture's impact on its key stakeholders, pursuing growth may result in mission drift with a detrimental neglect of dual mission objectives and stakeholder needs. In this conceptual article, we aim to contribute to an enhanced understanding of how growth unfolds in social ventures and how the governance of growth can prevent divergence from the venture's raison d'être in tackling stakeholder needs. Building upon the literature on organizational and social impact growth, we theorize four distinct growth strategies: benevolence‐driven, collaboration‐driven, skills‐driven, and consumption‐driven social venture growth. For each strategy, we identify underlying growth dynamics and derive principles for the governance of social venture growth. This way, we add to the emergent literature on social venture growth and dual mission management.