Institutional Perspectives on Social Enterprise – Relevance for Policy in Democratizing Contexts

Institutional theory provides robust theoretical and methodological tools with significant relevance for informing crisis mitigation and recovery policies in the Global South. This paper examines the importance of institutional logics as a meta-perspective across the three mandates of organizational theory: analysis at the intra-organizational, inter-organizational, and system-wide levels. Drawing on fieldwork with social enterprises (SEs) in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia, we discuss how underexplored contexts can challenge and enrich existing theory, enhancing its utility for policymaking. At the intra-organizational level, we extend an institutional logics perspective portraying SEs as hybrids that balance dual logics, suggesting the recognition of SEs as pluralistic organizations addressing multiple institutional demands. At the inter-organizational level, we build upon an institutional logics perspective predicting organizational convergence within a field under institutional complexity and consider that SEs may retain pluralism through diverse adaptive strategies. At the systems level, we shift institutional theories’ emphasis from constraints and embedded agency to understanding how organizations navigate challenging environments, shape institutional frameworks, and influence societal-level logics. We argue that a multi-level approach is particularly relevant in tackling today’s grand challenges and crises, where traditional organizational boundaries are increasingly blurred and institutional pressures are ever-evolving.