The influence of social supportive culture and performance-based culture on social enterprise performance: the mediation role of Social entrepreneurial orientation

PURPOSE: Social enterprise (SE) survival is at stake in pursuing the dual mission (social and economic). For this reason, we try to reconcile the SE growth and sustainability issue through the shaping role of top management team (TMT) involvement along with performance-based (PBC)/ social supportive culture (SSC) and SE performance in the presence of social entrepreneurial orientation, which may enhance the SE internal capabilities that assist them in gaining sustainability and stability for SE. METHODOLOGY: In this study, we employed the quantitative survey approach to investigate the proposed relationship with the 268 valid responses collected from top management teams, including CEOs from small- to medium-sized social enterprises in mainland China. FINDINGS: Our findings support that PBC and SSC enhance SE growth and performance. On the other hand, SEO as the mediator does not impact SSC and SE performance, while SEO partially mediates the PBC and SE performance relationship along with TMT involvement as a moderator. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This study shows the top management teams that culture is a vital component of SE performance. Likewise, using PBC and SSC simultaneously or utilizing them from specific perspectives of the entrepreneurial process and understanding situational factors that support the impact of each functional behavioral logic increase the chances of SE success. ORIGINALITY: The previous literature wide addresses the influence of PBC and SSC on conventional entrepreneurship, but it does not explicitly address social enterprises: even though social enterprises deal with conventional and social approaches together.