Exploring Foundational Capabilities in Social Enterprises: A Quantitative Study

Traditional outcome-based performance measures in social enterprises are fragmented and fail to capture key success drivers. This study emphasises assessing foundational capabilities to avoid superficial interpretations of success or failure. Addressing the research question, ‘What are the key dimensions and structural components of governance, learning, innovativeness, and market orientation capabilities in social enterprises?’, it employs a scale development approach grounded in capability theory, surveying 937 managerial-level employees of Australian social enterprises through pre-test, pilot test, and main survey. Findings reveal dual dimensions in governance (normative and pragmatic compliance) and market orientation (intelligence generation and response design) offering insights and theoretical understanding.