Fostering inclusive social innovation in subsistence marketplaces through community-level alliances: An institutional work perspective

Abstract Social enterprises can play an instrumental role in addressing major societal challenges in subsistence marketplaces through the creation of shared value. However, there are many social barriers in subsistence contexts that exclude vulnerable groups from participating in, and benefiting from, the shared value creation process. These social barriers are contextual in nature and arise from sources such as gender-based discrimination or caste-based discrimination. The exclusion of such vulnerable groups undermines the goal of inclusive social innovation and sparks concerns of elite-capture of shared value in subsistence marketplaces. In this paper, we highlight how social enterprises can overcome the concern of elite-capture of shared value by fostering inclusive social innovation in subsistence contexts. Our research draws from a longitudinal inductive study of nine Indian social enterprises operating in industrial markets such as agriculture and logistics. We apply and extend insights from institutional work perspective to uncover three principal mechanisms for fostering inclusive social innovation, namely – a) relational work, b) inclusion work and c) equity work. These mechanisms work in concert to facilitate the a) creation of shared value in subsistence contexts, b) inclusive distribution of shared value, and c) fair distribution of shared value.