A dual mission challenge: Best practices for navigating practices for navigating mission drift in social enterprises

Abstract

In our thesis, we investigate social entrepreneurs and explore the challenges that come with creating, managing, and growing an enterprise with social and commercial ambitions. Through this, we deduce mission drift as neither good nor bad, as previous work has connotations for the concept. Rather, we see mission drift as a practical reality that comes with running an enterprise with a dual mission approach. We present our interviews in the context of a swinging pendulum between the competing forces of social and commercial missions and find best practices for social entrepreneurs to address mission drift through allegorical data. Key words: entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social mission, mission drift