Fostering Generative Partnerships in an Inclusive Business Model

Rong Zhu and Sunny Li Sun
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Rong Zhu: Department of Business Administration, Business School, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Sunny Li Sun: Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: How does a social venture build multiple partnerships among stakeholders to enable a wide range of social value propositions and alleviate economic inequality? We address this question by developing a new concept on generative partnerships, defined as the collaboration between nonprofits and business organizations to co-create social value proposition and attract enhanced collaboration to solve social issues in an inclusive business model. We study two Chinese cooperatives, Co-op Lishui Shangeng (L) and Co-op Wuyang Chunyu (W), to show how they created a social ecosystem through an inclusive business model. These two cooperatives have also developed co-brandings L and W, respectively. We find that hybrid organizations could generate partnerships among different agents to form a social ecosystem. Drawing on the generative relationship theory, we identify four stages of fostering generative partnerships: (1) a value blueprint, (2) a pilot demonstration, (3) scaling-up, and (4) snowballing. After developing propositions regarding directedness, heterogeneity, and interaction of agents, we further elaborate two common schemas on the process of generating hybrid partnerships in this social ecosystem.

Keywords: generative partnerships; inclusive business model; social ecosystem; cooperative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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