Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-c52kr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-07T05:35:35.871Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Managing Organizational Paradoxes in Social Enterprises: Case Studies from the MENA Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Ayman Ismail Open the ORCID record for Ayman Ismail [Opens in a new window]  and
Brendon Johnson
Ayman Ismail*
Affiliation:
American University in Cairo – School of Business, AUC Avenue, PO Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
Brendon Johnson*
Affiliation:
American University in Cairo – School of Business, AUC Avenue, PO Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
*
aymanism@aucegypt.edu
brendontjohnson@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study aims to examine the question around how small- and medium-scale hybrid social enterprises within the context of the Middle East and North Africa manage paradoxical tensions they face in their everyday decision-making. By placing a lens on the unique hybrid processes facing organizational members rooted in traditional social and economic rationales, we seek to better understand the breadth of strategies adopted and their relevance to the specific contextual considerations of the study. Through analyzing five in-depth case studies from the region, the study aims to add insights on the practice of managing organizational paradoxes to maintain social-economic hybridity. We also introduce practical implications for managers and supporters of small- and medium-scale social enterprises.

Keywords

Social enterpriseOrganizational paradoxesMENA regionHybrid organizationsCase studies

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , June 2019 , pp. 516 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abdou, E., Fahmy, A., Greenwald, D., & Nelson, J. (2011). Social entrepreneurship in the Middle East: Towards sustainable development for the next generation. Washington: Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings.Google Scholar
Albert, S., & Whetten, D. A. (1985). Organizational identity. Research in Organizational Behavior, 7, 263–295.Google Scholar
Austin, J., Stevenson, H., & Wei-Skillern, J. (2006). Social and commercial entrepreneurship: Same, different, or both?. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 30(1), 1–22. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00107.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battilana, J., & Dorado, S. (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. The Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1419–1440. doi: 10.5465/amj.2010.57318391.Google Scholar
Battilana, J., & Lee, M. (2014). Advancing research on hybrid organizing: Insights from the study of social enterprises. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 397–441. doi: 10.1080/19416520.2014.893615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battilana, J., Sengul, M., Pache, A., & Model, J. (2015). Harnessing productive tensions in hybrid organizations: The case of work integration social enterprises. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6), 1658–1685. doi: 10.5465/amj.2013.0903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beech, N., Burns, H., de Caestecker, L., Macintosh, R., & Mac-Lean, D. (2004). Paradox as invitation to act in problematic change situations. Human Relations, 57, 1313–1332. doi: 10.1177/0018726704048357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besharov, M., & Smith, W. (2014). Multiple institutional logics in organizations: Explaining their varied nature and implications. Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review, 39(3), 364–381. doi: 10.5465/amr.2011.0431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canales, R. (2014). Weaving straw into gold: Managing organizational tensions between standardization and flexibility in microfinance. Organizational Science, 25(1), 1–28. doi: 10.1287/orsc.2013.0831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chell, E. (2007). Social enterprise and entrepreneurship: Towards a convergent theory of the entrepreneurial process. International Small Business Journal, 25(1), 5–26. doi: 10.1177/0266242607071779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, K., O’Mahony, S., & Besharov, M. L. (2014). The selective synthesis of competing logics. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Cornforth, C. (2014). Understanding and combating mission drift in social enterprises. Social Enterprise Journal, 10(1), 3–20. doi: 10.1108/SEJ-09-2013-0036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, R. B., & Sarayrah, Y. K. (1993). Wasta: The hidden force in Middle Eastern Society. Westport, CT: Praegar.Google Scholar
Dacin, P. A., Dacin, M. T., & Matear, M. (2010). Social entrepreneurship: Why we don’t need a new theory and how we move forward from here. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 24(3), 37–57.Google Scholar
Dart, R. (2004). The legitimacy of social enterprise. Nonprofit management and leadership, 14(4), 411–424. doi: 10.1002/nml.43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dees, J. G. (2001). The meaning of “social entrepreneurship”. Draft Paper. http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/documents/dees_SE.pdf. Accessed 12 Dec 2017.Google Scholar
Defourny, J., & Nyssens, M. (2008). Conceptions of social enterprises in Europe and the United States: Convergences and divergences. Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit.Google Scholar
Demirbag, M., Mirza, H., & Weir, D. T. H. (2003). Measuring trust, inter-partner conflict, and joint venture performance. Journal of Transnational Management Development, 8(1/2), 111–140. doi: 10.1300/J130v08n01_06.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doherty, B., Haugh, H., & Lyon, F. (2014). Social enterprises as hybrid organizations: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(4), 417–436. doi: 10.1111/ijmr.12028.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorfman, P. (1996). International and cross-cultural leadership. In Punnett, B. J. & Shenkar, O. (Eds.), Handbook for international management research (pp. 267–349). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ebrahim, A., Battilana, J., & Mair, J. (2014). The governance of social enterprises: Mission drift and accountability challenges in hybrid organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 34, 81–100.10.1016/j.riob.2014.09.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eikenberry, A. M., & Kluver, J. D. (2004). The marketization of the nonprofit sector: Civil society at risk?. Public Administration Review, 64, 132–140. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2004.00355.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. The Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550.10.2307/258557CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenhardt, K., & Graebner, M. (2007). Theory building from cases: Opportunities and challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1), 25–32.10.5465/amj.2007.24160888CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, A. (2000). NGDOs as a moment in history: Beyond aid to social entrepreneurship or civic innovation?. Third World Quarterly, 21(4), 637–654. doi: 10.1080/713701063.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galaskiewicz, J., & Barringer, S. N. (2012). Social Enterprises and Social Categories. In Gidron, B. & Hasenfeld, Y. (Eds.), Social enterprises: An organizational perspective (pp. 47–70). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: 10.1057/9781137035301_3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghandour, F. (2013). Corporate entrepreneurial responsibility (CER). https://www.wamda.com/2013/01/corporate-entrepreneurship-responsibility-by-fadi-ghandour. Accessed 20 Feb 2018.Google Scholar
Greenwood, R., Díaz, A. M., Li, S. X., & Lorente, J. C. (2010). The multiplicity of institutional logics and the heterogeneity of organizational responses. Organization Science, 21(2), 521–539. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1090.0453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwood, R., Raynard, M., Kodeih, F., Micelotta, E. R., & Lounsbury, M. (2011). Institutional complexity and organizational responses. The Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 317–371. doi: 10.1080/19416520.2011.590299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halabi, S., Kheir, S., & Cochrane, P. (2017). Social enterprise development in the Middle East and North Africa: A quality analysis of Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine. Cairo: Wamda.Google Scholar
Hannan, M., & Freeman, J. (1986). Where do organizational forms come from?. Official Journal of the Eastern Sociological Society, 1(1), 50–72.Google Scholar
Hartnell, C. (2018). Philanthropy in the Arab Region: A working paper. Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace in association with Alliance, Arab Foundations Forum, John D Gerhart Center for Philanthropy, King Khalid Foundation, Philanthropy Age, SAANED, and WINGS.Google Scholar
Haveman, H. A., & Rao, H. (2006). Hybrid forms and the evolution of thrifts. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(7), 974–986. doi: 10.1177/0002764205285179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchings, K., & Weir, D. (2006). Understanding networking in China and the Arab World: Lessons for international managers. Journal or European Industrial Training, 30. p. 272. doi: 10.1108/03090590610673641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ismail, A., Schøtt, T., Bazargon, A., Dudokh, D., Al Kubaisi, H., Hassen, M., Vega, I., Chabrak, N., Annan, A., Herrington, M., & Kew, P. (2017). GEM Middle East and North Africa regional report 2017. Wellesley: Global Entrepreneurship Research Association.Google Scholar
Jamali, D., & Lanteri, A. (2015). Introduction. In Jamali, D. & Lanteri, A. (Eds.), Social entrepreneurship in the Middle East (Vol. 1). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmilla doi: 10.1057/9781137395368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jay, J. (2013). Navigating paradox as a mechanism of change and innovation in hybrid organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 56(1), 137. doi: 10.5465/amj.2010.0772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, M. B. (2007). The multiple sources of mission drift. Insights, 36, 299–307.Google Scholar
Kabasakal, H., & Dastmalchian, A. (2001). Introduction to leadership and culture in the Middle Eastern countries: Norms, practices and effective leadership attributes in Iran, Kuwait, Turkey and Qatar. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(4), 479–495. doi: 10.1111/1464-0597.00069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabasakal, H., Dastmalchian, A., Karacay, G., & Bayraktar, S. (2012). Leadership and culture in the MENA region: An analysis of the GLOBE project. Journal of World Business, 47, 519–529. doi: 10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karanda, C., & Toledano, N. (2012). Social entrepreneurship in South Africa: A different narrative for a different context. Social Enterprise Journal, 8(3), 201–215. doi: 10.1108/17508611211280755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, R. A., & Page, A. (2013). Sustainable business. In McKinney, R. H. (Ed.), School of law legal studies research paper no. 2013–24.Google Scholar
Kerlin, J. (2009). Social enterprise: A global comparison. Lebanon: UPNE.Google Scholar
Lau, D. C., & Murnighan, J. K. (1998). Demographic diversity and faultlines: The compositional dynamics of organizational groups. The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), 325–340. doi: 10.5465/amr.1998.533229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M. (2000). Exploring paradox: Toward a more comprehensive guide. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 760–776. doi: 10.5465/amr.2000.3707712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M. W., Andriopoulos, C., & Smith, W. K. (2014). Paradoxical leadership to enable strategic agility. California Management Review, 56(3), 58–77. doi: 10.1525/cmr.2014.56.3.58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lumpkin, G. T., Moss, T. W., Gras, D. M., Kato, S., & Amezcua, A. S. (2013). Entrepreneurial processes in social contexts: How are they different, if at all?. Small Business Economics, 40(3), 761–783. doi: 10.1007/s11187-011-9399-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luscher, L., & Lewis, M. (2008). Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working through paradox. Academy of Management Journal, 51(2), 221–240. doi: 10.5465/amj.2008.31767217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, R. (2007). The opposable mind: How successful leaders win through integrative thinking. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Marzin, J., Bonnet, P., Bessaoud, O., & Ton-Nu, C. (2017). Study on small-scale family farming in the Near East and North Africa: Region synthesis. Cairo: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).Google Scholar
Mason, C., & Doherty, B. (2016). A fair trade-off? Paradoxes in the governance of fair-trade social enterprises. Journal of Business Ethics, 136(3), 451–469. doi: 10.1007/s10551-014-2511-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moizer, J., & Tracey, P. (2010). Strategy making in social enterprise: The role of resource allocation and its effects on organizational sustainability. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 27(3), 252–266. doi: 10.1002/sres.1006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nguyen, L., Szkudlarek, B., & Seymour, R. G. (2015). Social impact measurement in social enterprises: An interdependence perspective. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences/Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l’Administration, 32(4), 224–237. doi: 10.1002/cjas.1359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholls, A. (2010). The legitimacy of social entrepreneurship: Reflexive isomorphism in a pre-paradigmatic field. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(4), 611–633. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00397.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pache, A. C., & Santos, F. (2010). When worlds collide: The internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands. Academy of Management Review, 35(3), 455–476.Google Scholar
Pache, A. C., & Santos, F. (2013). Inside the hybrid organization: Selective coupling as a response to competing institutional logics. Academy of Management Journal, 56(4), 972. doi: 10.5465/amj.2011.0405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padgett, J. F., & Powell, W. W. (2012). The emergence of organizations and markets. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press doi: 10.23943/princeton/9780691148670.001.0001.Google Scholar
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Polat, H. (2010). Cooperatives in the Arab World: Reaffirming their validity for local and regional development. Background paper for the Sub-Regional Knowledge Sharing Workshop on Cooperatives in the Arab States. Beirut: International Labour Organization Regional Office for Arab States.Google Scholar
Pratt, M., & Foreman, P. (2000). Classifying managerial responses to multiple organizational identities. Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 18–42. doi: 10.5465/amr.2000.2791601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridley-Duff, R. (2008). Social enterprise as a socially rational business. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, 14(5), 291–312. doi: 10.1108/13552550810897669.Google Scholar
Ruef, M., & Patterson, K. (2009). Credit and classification: The impact of industry boundaries in nineteenth-century America. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(3), 486–520. doi: 10.2189/asqu.2009.54.3.486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russo, F. (2009). Causality and causal modelling in the social sciences: Measuring variations. Berlin: Springer Science + Business Media B.V. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-8817-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seanor, P., & Meaton, J. (2008). Learning from failure, ambiguity and trust in social enterprise. Social Enterprise Journal, 4(1), 24–40. doi: 10.1108/17508610810877713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sepulveda, L. (2015). Social enterprise: A new phenomenon in the field of economic and social welfare?. Social Policy and Administration, 49(7), 842–861. doi: 10.1111/spol.12106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Short, J. C., Moss, T. W., & Lumpkin, G. T. (2009). Research in social entrepreneurship: Past contributions and future opportunities. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 3, 161–194. doi: 10.1002/sej.69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, W., Besharov, M., Wessels, A., & Chertok, M. (2012). A paradoxical leadership model for social entrepreneurs: Challenges, leadership skills, and pedagogical tools for managing social and commercial demands. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 11(3), 463. doi: 10.5465/amle.2011.0021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, W. K., Gonin, M., & Besharov, M. L. (2013). Managing social-business tensions: A review and research agenda for social enterprise. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(3), 407–442. doi: 10.5840/beq201323327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, W. K., & Lewis, M. W. (2011). Toward a theory of paradox: A dynamic equilibrium model of organizing. The Academy of Management Review, 36(2), 381–403.Google Scholar
Smith, W., & Tushman, M. (2005). Managing strategic contradictions: A top management model for managing innovation streams. Organizational Science, 16, 522–536. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1050.0134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevens, R., Moray, N., & Bruneel, J. (2015). The social and economic mission of social enterprises: Dimensions, measurement, validation, and relation. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 39(5), 1051–1082. doi: 10.1111/etap.12091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teasdale, S. (2011). What’s in a name? The construction of social enterprise, making sense of social enterprise discourses. Public Policy and Administration, 27(2), 99–199. doi: 10.1177/0952076711401466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The World Bank. (2014). Data: Middle East & North Africa. Accessed August 1, 2018. http://data.worldbank.org/region/MNA.Google Scholar
The World Bank. (2018a). Global indicators. Accessed September 18, 2018. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator.Google Scholar
The World Bank (2018). Doing business 2018: Reforming to create jobs. Regional profile of Arab world. Washington: The World Bank Group.Google Scholar
Tracey, P., & Phillips, N. (2007). The distinctive challenge of educating social entrepreneurs: A postscript and rejoinder to the special issue on entrepreneurship education. Academy of Management Learning Education, 6, 264–271. doi: 10.5465/amle.2007.25223465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2016). Arab human development report 2016: Youth and the prospects for human development in a changing reality. New York: United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Arab States doi: 10.18356/fea75457-en.Google Scholar
Wilson, F., & Post, J. (2013). Business models for people, planet (and profits): Exploring the phenomena of social business, a market-based approach to social value creation. An Entrepreneurship Journal, 40(3), 715–737.Google Scholar
Yin, R. K. (1984). Case study research: Design and methods. London: Sage.Google Scholar