۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review and hypotheses

۳- Research design

۴- Data analysis and results

۵- Conclusions

۶- Implications and limitations

References

Abstract

Social innovation and social enterprises have not only changed the concept of operating nonprofit organisations but have also blurred the line between society and business. The current social purpose environment is dynamic and continuously evolving, with firms needing to balance dual social-business goals. This paper employs the decomposed theory of planned behaviour to deconstruct goodwill and commerce factors and analyses the behavioural intentions of consumers when they are purchasing social enterprise products and services. Additionally, this study uses a cross-level perspective to examine the role of reference groups and adopts a hierarchical linear model for verification. The results suggest that consumer behavioural intention increases with the level of perceived behavioural control. Attitude is the main factor influencing consumer purchases of social enterprise products and services. Furthermore, consumers consider the opinions of members of their reference groups when purchasing social enterprise products. This study suggests that social enterprises can communicate service concepts and strengthen product links by highlighting their goodwill-related nature. They should also increase the transparency of organisational operations to enhance consumer confidence in social enterprise products and positive goodwill connectivity.

Introduction

The emergence of social purpose organisations has made a significant contribution to the economy and societal well-being (Bhattarai, Kwong, & Tasavori, 2019; Muñoz & Kimmitt, 2019). Social innovation and social enterprises have not only changed the concept of operating nonprofit organisations (NPOs), but also blurred the line between society and business, so far as to change public governmental policies (McMullen, 2018). Social enterprises are organisations that use business models to tackle social concerns such as promoting environmental conservation, creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups, and purchasing products or services from disadvantaged groups (Crutchfield & Peterson, 2016). Social enterprises exist as for-profit companies and NPOs, the surplus of which they primarily re-invest in themselves to continually solve social problems. The main difference between social enterprises and traditional NPOs is that a social enterprise has the external appearance of a business, is autonomous, does not get involved in national governmental affairs, and provides innovative services in response to failures of the state and market. The concept of social enterprises is a critical direction for solving current social and economic problems (Kim & Moon, 2017). A review of social-enterprise-related studies revealed that most have focused on solving social problems from an organisational perspective or have emphasised innovative service models or operational and management factors (Dees, Emerson, & Economy, 2011; Kerlin, 2013; Kim & Moon, 2017; Pelchat, 2012). However, consumer-related issues remain poorly understood (Gras & Mendoza-Abarca, 2014; Thompson, Purdy, & Ventresca, 2018). Specifically, the public largely does not understand social enterprises and often oversimplifies them. Some people even consider social enterprises as merely performing good deeds. Furthermore, studies have shown that although the public generally has a positive attitude towards social enterprises, their acceptance of goods and services provided by such enterprises is not always as high as expected (Magnusson, 2013; Moody, Littlepage, & Paydar, 2015). Therefore, from a consumer perspective, the question of whether consumers support social enterprises because they agree with their concepts or simply because the goods and services they provide meet market needs warrants further investigation (Rahaman & Khan, 2017; Singh, 2016).