Background:

Considering increased global challenges and societal issues, more and more people are directing skepticism towards governments' and established businesses' abilities to fully address urgent social problems. Social entrepreneurship constitutes a new entrepreneurial movement where societal issues are addressed by a combination of market-based methods and social value creation. Social entrepreneurship generates social and sustainable benefits to society and has thus received growing attention from both researchers and policy makers around the world. Social enterprises may take on varies forms, ranging from non-profit organizations to commercially driven enterprises. To focus on sustainable business models, this thesis has delimited the study to solely focus on for-profit or hybrid organizations.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to describe what inhibiting factors Swedish social enterprises face in scaling processes. Scaling refers to the magnitude a social business maximizes its social impact, primarily, but not limited to, through organizational growth. Furthermore, the thesis aims at explaining how social forces co-shape preconditions and actor decisions connected to scaling.  

Method:

To fulfil the purpose of the study, a qualitative research methodology was used. The empirical data was primarily collected through semi-structured interviews held with founders, COO’s and CEO’s from seven social enterprises in Sweden. To fully explain inhibiting factors of scaling, an abductive research approach was used with a combination of open and encouraging questions to promote discussion and develop theory.

Conclusion:

The empirical findings of the study revealed a total of 14 inhibiting factors for scaling social impact in Sweden. From the findings, a development of existent theory resulted in a model illustrating the relationship between inhibiting factors, social forces and scaling social impact.