Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 250: The Effect of Value Co-Creation on Social Enterprise Growth: Moderating Mechanism of Environment Dynamics (Sustainability)

The traditional approach to demonstrate the growth processes of social enterprise still relies heavily on an internal perspective of resource and capability accumulation. However, it is insufficient to explain why some social enterprises grow quickly while other social enterprises do not. Based on the theory of value co-creation, this paper proposes a theoretical framework of the effect of value co-creation on social enterprise growth. A survey was conducted in China across 29 provinces and municipalities from October 2015 to March 2016, through the efforts of a market research group. The final number of usable questionnaires was 172. Specifically, by employing hierarchical regression models, this paper partially confirms the positive impact of value co-creation on social enterprise growth, while environment dynamics have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between value creation and the growth of social enterprises.