Practicing what you preach: Social enterprise resource utilization and its signalling implications
通过31位社会企业高管的深度访谈，揭示资源利用的两个维度（目的嵌入性与信号策展），解释资源利用如何影响社会企业合法性，并提出四个命题。
Social enterprises (SEs) continue to emerge as important contributors to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. SE resource utilization can, however, compromise SE legitimacy. We argue that this is in part due to the implicit and subtle relationship between SE resource utilization and signalling, topics which receive little consideration in the present literature. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews with senior SE representatives and an abductive research design, the present study uncovers two unique resource utilization dimensions – purpose embeddedness and signalling curation – which help explain this relationship. These are the basis of four propositions which highlight the SE-specific implications of SE resource utilization and signalling. The study also involves implications for theory and practice.