Forming a Social Partnership between a Small Social Enterprise and a Large Corporation: A Case of the Joint Platform, H-JUMP

Abstract

This study illustrates how partnerships in asymmetric power relationships, such as social enterprises and large established firms, can be made in the context of social partnership. We acknowledge that partnerships with large corporations can help social enterprises to overcome several structural barriers they may encounter in forming and sustaining their business models. However, these partnerships can be situated in asymmetric power relationships as resource dependence unfolds. Thus, paradoxically, a partnership with a large corporation can be another challenge to the social enterprise. In absorbing these constraints, we propose that a social enterprise should come up with a stylized social partnership model, utilizing their social capital when engaging in the formation of such a power-imbalanced partnership. We conducted an in-depth case study which presents how a small and young social enterprise can achieve a viable partnership with a large, established firm. Our findings show that social enterprises can form and develop long-term sustainable partnerships with large corporations using a stylized platform strategy with social capital and relational governance in the process of collective value creation.