Navigating mission drift in social enterprises: the interplay of social entrepreneurs’ dual “business facet” and governance structure

Xinhe Zhuang, Chunxia Wang and Bin Li

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2025, vol. 37, issue 5-6, 714-739

Abstract: Based on upper echelons theory (UET), this study investigates the impact of social entrepreneurs’ ‘business facet’ on mission drift in social enterprises. In particular, we examine their financial motivation (ends) and prior business work experience (means) while considering the contextual role of organizational governance structure. We conduct empirical tests with data from a survey of 200 Chinese social enterprises. The findings indicate that the financial motivation and prior business work experience of social entrepreneurs respectively facilitate and restrain the occurrence of mission drift in social enterprises. Moreover, a comprehensive organizational governance structure mitigates the positive relationship between financial motivation and mission drift while strengthening the negative influence of prior business work experience on mission drift. Our study contributes to the research on mission drift, the UET theory, and the literature on social entrepreneurship.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2025.2460169

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