Evaluating and extending SCALERS: Implications for social entrepreneurs

Abstract

An effective scaling strategy can enable social entrepreneurs to significantly increase their organizations’ impact. Bloom and Chatterji’s SCALERS framework identifies seven capabilities social ventures can develop to effectively scale social impact: staffing, communicating, alliance-building, lobbying, earnings generation, replicating, and stimulating market forces. Empirical testing of SCALERS offers the potential to validate this framework, as well as to uncover additional capabilities necessary for scaling. In an examination of qualitative data from a case study of rapid social venture growth, our study tests the SCALERS framework. We find two additional capabilities important to effective scaling: internal systems (the formal processes and procedures used to run the organization, including information systems and planning systems) and client selection (choosing which clients to serve and, conversely, which not to serve). We also find that the extent to which communication constitutes a service of the venture is a contingency influencing the importance of communicating capabilities, and that clients’ ability to pay is a contingency impacting the importance of earnings generation capabilities.

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