Social entrepreneurship and organizational performance: A study of the mediating role of distinctive competencies in marketing

Abstract

[EN] Social economy is considered as the option that offers the best response in times of crisis. In this context, social economy companies play an essential role in the promotion of sustainable growth. This research wants to present the importance of social entrepreneurship in the organizational performance of a company. It also aims to show the positive relationship between the extent to which social entrepreneurship is implemented and the creation of distinctive marketing competences, as well as the mediating role these competences have between social entrepreneurship and organizational performance. For this purpose, an analysis of 221 Spanish social-economic entities has been developed from January to May 2014. In order to evaluate organizational performance, a validated scale has been used (Nakata, 2008), since it integrates sociometric characteristics that are necessary for this research. For the two remaining constructs, that is to say, social entrepreneurship and distinctive marketing competences, specific items have been developed by taking into consideration the analysis of their sociometric properties that could lead to the validation of the relationship among the three proposed variables. The results show a positive relationship between the extent to which an organization introduces social entrepreneurship and its organizational performance, social entrepreneurship and the creation of distinctive marketing competences, as well as the influence of distinctive marketing competences as a mediating variable in the relationship between the degree of implementation of social entrepreneurship and organizational performance.