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Social business collaboration at the bottom of the pyramid: The case of orchestration

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  • Stefan Gold
  • Ilma Nur Chowdhury
  • Fahian Anisul Huq
  • Kristin Heinemann

Abstract

Social business orchestrators (SBOs) help social businesses of various sizes to tackle major societal issues by filling gaps in knowledge and resources. However, research has overlooked these types of collaboration. Situated within a bottom of the pyramid context in Bangladesh, the current study sheds light on the process of value creation for SBO–social businesses partnerships by comparing different collaboration partners. Multiple case study research through the lens of the relational view were used to ask how SBOs facilitate value creation in social businesses by flexibly adapting resource inputs and governance mechanisms to the specific endowment and size of partners; this approach was informed by interviews and field note analyses. The combined deductive–inductive analysis enhances knowledge of idiosyncrasies of SBO–social business collaborations. Our study draws attention to the role of large orchestrators, whose model could be scaled and transferred to other world regions, including industrialised countries.

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  • Stefan Gold & Ilma Nur Chowdhury & Fahian Anisul Huq & Kristin Heinemann, 2020. "Social business collaboration at the bottom of the pyramid: The case of orchestration," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 262-275, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:29:y:2020:i:1:p:262-275
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2363
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. George Onofrei & Hung M. Nguyen & Min Zhang & Brian Fynes, 2020. "Building supply chain relational capital: The impact of supplier and customer leveraging on innovation performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3422-3434, December.
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