Pathways to scaling up in emerging economies: A configurational analysis of organizational capabilities in social enterprises

• Substitution and complementary effects exist among organizational capabilities during scaling up. • No single organizational capability is indispensable for effective scaling. • Pathways to high-performance scaling show consistency across breadth, depth, and overall social impacts. • Government and public attention aids scaling but cannot replace organizational capabilities. Organizational capability is a key factor influencing the effectiveness of scaling social impact within social enterprises, yet the combined effects of specific capabilities have been largely overlooked by existing studies. Utilizing the SCALERS model, this research examines how different configurations of organizational capabilities contribute to high-performance scaling up in entrepreneurially vibrant regions of emerging economies. Based on a configurational analysis of 46 purposively selected Chinese social enterprises, this study identifies five effective pathways catering to social enterprises with varying replicable programs, connection capacities, and self-development capabilities. These pathways remain robust when government attention and public attention are considered situational contingencies. Additionally, this study reveals a high level of consistency across pathways in achieving overall social impact and its specific quantitative and qualitative dimensions. This study bridges the gap in examining the synergistic potential of organizational capabilities and provides a more fine-grained investigation of scaling up.