Conceptualizing Resilience & Social Entrepreneurship Relationships in Complex & Chaotic Environments

This paper explores and conceptualizes the relationship between social entrepreneurship and resilience through inductive interpretation of 21 case examples of African hybrid-social enterprises. The paper is based upon observations and qualitative data collected during fieldwork in Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa as well as analysis of secondary materials. The paper firstly explores key characteristics and traits of resilient social entrepreneurs and enterprises, before considering impact strategies for fostering stakeholder resilience. A conceptual framework emerging from the case analysis is then presented, that can be used to explore resilience in hybrid/social enterprises in the complex, chaotic and challenging institutional contexts typically found in developing countries with high levels of relative poverty and acute social problems.