An analysis of internal determinants of performance in rural social enterprises

Rural social enterprises are organizations that utilize market-oriented strategies to fulfill social objectives within regional and rural settings, particularly in addressing persistent issues like poverty and inequality. Their performance is inadequately researched in the rural context, particularly in developing countries where their contributions to overcoming intractable challenges are most needed. This study contributes to addressing these research gaps by developing a model for assessing internal critical success factors (CSFs) that influence social enterprise performance, and testing it in an empirical investigation of the influence of selected CSFs – entrepreneurial orientation, social salience and business planning on the performance of rural social enterprises. A survey of 521 Ugandan rural social enterprises provided data which was analysed using structural equation modelling and importance performance map analysis. Results reveal that entrepreneurial orientation and business planning are critical to rural social enterprises’ performance, and that business planning mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance. For practitioners and policymakers, these findings suggest that entrepreneurial orientation, social salience, and business planning are critical to the performance of rural social enterprises. Further, findings support rural social enterprises’ use of their entrepreneurial orientation to improve financial performance while also advocating for and increasing social performance. We advance social entrepreneurship research by employing the CSF concept in conjunction with other frameworks, and by developing and quantitatively validating a concise model consisting of internal CSFs based on measurement scales. We assess the psychometric properties of these scales and analyse their influence on the performance of rural social enterprises. These findings provide direction for rural social enterprise scholars, practitioners, advocates, and policymakers.

农村社会企业（rural social enterprises）指在区域与乡村场景中运用市场化策略实现社会目标的组织，尤其致力于解决贫困与不平等等长期存在的社会问题。当前针对乡村场景下这类组织的绩效研究仍显不足，而在最需要其发挥作用以攻克棘手社会难题的发展中国家，相关研究缺口尤为突出。本研究旨在填补这一研究空白：通过构建用于评估影响社会企业绩效的内部关键成功因素（critical success factors, CSFs）的模型，并开展实证研究，检验所选关键成功因素——创业导向（entrepreneurial orientation）、社会显著性（social salience）与商业规划（business planning）——对农村社会企业绩效的影响。研究针对521家乌干达农村社会企业开展问卷调查，所得数据采用结构方程模型（structural equation modelling）与重要性-绩效图谱分析（importance performance map analysis）进行分析。结果显示，创业导向与商业规划对农村社会企业的绩效具有关键作用，且商业规划在创业导向与绩效之间发挥中介效应。对于从业者与政策制定者而言，本研究结果表明，创业导向、社会显著性与商业规划均对农村社会企业的绩效至关重要；此外，研究结果支持农村社会企业通过强化创业导向以提升财务绩效，同时倡导并提升社会绩效。本研究将关键成功因素理念与其他研究框架相结合，开发并定量验证了一套基于测量量表的内部关键成功因素精简模型，同时评估了相关量表的心理测量学特性（psychometric properties），并分析其对农村社会企业绩效的影响。上述研究结论可为农村社会企业领域的学者、从业者、倡导者及政策制定者提供研究与实践方向。