Social Mission Internalization: A Path to Achieve Social and Economic Goals in Social Enterprises

Social enterprises (SEs) are hybrid organizations whose mission is to simultaneously seek economic viability and the achievement of positive social impact. Notably, these two ends of the social mission are considered conflicting. The process of internalization of goals or values consists in accepting certain external values, goals, attitudes or behaviors and transforming them into internal, one´s own. Thus, the objective of this study is to delve into the role of the social mission and the economic mission and the relationship between these two aims. Employing Structural Equation Modelling the study found that the role of IM is important and it influences employee mission engagement (EME) and that EME, in turn, positively impacts organizational outcomes (PSMA and POP). There is a full mediation of PSMA on POP, suggesting that by pursuing the social and economic mission is not contradictory, when social mission is put at the center and when it its truly internalized. In other words, achieving the social mission works for the good performance of social enterprises. In addition, internalization of the mission is relevant to avoid possible tensions between different social and economic objectives.