4th International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC)
Third Sector Research Centre, Birmingham, 12-14 September 2012

Stream 1: Starting and Scaling up Social Ventures

Bob Doherty (Liverpool Hope University) and Ute Stephan (Sheffield University)

The entrepreneurship literature is rich in how new ventures are created by revealing both the process and stages or phases of pre-venture creation and post-venture activity. Understandably, until recently most of this entrepreneurial research work has taken place in the private sector. However, a range of authors have started to unveil the process, the stages and resources involved in setting-up and growing social/community ventures. Despite this emerging work there are still significant gaps in our understanding of starting and scaling-up social ventures.

Suggested themes and topics include, but are not limited to:

• The extent of the distinctiveness of start-up and scale-up in social enterprise
• The tension between social and economic objectives during start-up and growth in social ventures
• The influence of context in social venture creation and scale-up
• The nature of organisational growth processes
• Stages and resources utilised in start-up and scale-up
• The barriers and challenges to start-up and growth
• Learning from failure in social venture creation
• The influence of networks in social venture creation

Abstract submissions for single papers and panel sessions should be sent directly to ISIRC@tsrc.ac.uk. See call for papers for more details.

Enquiries should be directed to the stream convenors: Bob Doherty (dohertb@hope.ac.uk) and Ute Stephan (u.stephan@sheffield.ac.uk).

See full stream description (PDF, 18KB)