The social mission works: internalizing the mission to achieve organizational performance in social enterprises

Social enterprises (SEs) are mission-driven organisations that pursue both (1) financial independence from grants and charity by achieving at least small profitability, and (2) positive social and / or environmental impacts. While the two objectives are mostly framed as contradictory in the recent literature, in this research we scrutinise this assumption. We examine how mission internalisation (MI) by employees impacts on employee mission engagement (EME) and how EME is related to perceived social mission achievement (PSMA) and perceived organisation performance (POP) within the social enterprise setting. A sample of 143 social enterprises was used to confirm the scale and validate the model using structural equation modelling. The findings reveal that MI impacts on EME and that EME, as expected, is related to organisational outcomes: PSMA and POP. Given that PSMA fully mediates POP, we conclude that the social and economic objectives are fully compatible when the social mission is placed at the centre. Furthermore, POP cannot be achieved without PSMA. The lesson learnt is that the social mission works if it is truly internalised. By focusing on mission internalisation, SEs can prevent tensions among social and economic goals. While hybridity (focus on social and economic ends) is what describes the mission in an SE, the majority of articles still focus on achieving just one end. We provide a conceptual model (and its empirical validation) of how social organisations achieve both social objectives and business objectives.