Exposing the impactful journeys of social entrepreneurs

Social enterprises (SEs) are growing hybrid and innovative business models seeking to connect

social goals with commercial performance to create socio-economic values. Almost 73% of

SEs in Australia are small and operate in resource-scarce environments making them

vulnerable organisations. Value co-creation, as the collective action of individuals to develop

value together, can enable SEs to access the resources that they need to survive, create

competitive advantages, and improve their sustainability and performance. Online

communities (OCs) enable independent and like-minded individuals to co-create value through

collaboration and resource integration in a cost-effective way. Although extant research has

studied value co-creation through OCs from different individuals` perspectives in different

contexts, little is known about how values are co-created and what values are co-created as the

collective action of social entrepreneurs (as the end-users) with each other in OCs. It

specifically remains unclear what motivates social entrepreneurs to participate in OCs, what

factors might inhibit them from engaging in OCs, and what essential abilities they need to have

to be able to effectively participate in OCs. Furthermore, there is a paucity of knowledge in the

literature on what activities are performed by social entrepreneurs in OCs to co-create value

for all parties involved in the process and how social entrepreneurs perceive values as the result

of their participation in OCs.