Colliding mandates of social enterprises: exploring the financial strategies, environment, and social-market tensions of bicycles-for-development organizations

Abstract

In the last 15 years, there has been a flurry of sport-for-development and peace (SDP) organizations, corporate-funded interventions and scholarship. Despite burgeoning SDP research, there have been few studies that have investigated the bicycles-for-development (BFD) “movement”, whereby bicycles are perceived as key to achieving international development goals (e.g., gender equality). In this article, an institutional logics lens is used for an analysis of BFD hybrid organizations, particularly social enterprises. Interviews with BFD organizational executives were conducted, and data analysis revealed three overarching themes centered around: (1) BFD social enterprise financial strategies to strive for market and social program sustainability; (2) environmental factors that influence BFD social enterprises; and (3) social-market tensions of BFD hybrid organizations. Expanding understandings of how hybrid organizations in SDP navigate dual bottom-lines, findings and discussion highlight how BFD social enterprises are challenged by the environment in which they operate and as such face questions of their ability to offer clearly articulated social missions that move away from traditional market-based practices. The paper concludes 8with suggestions for further research on BFD and future empirical investigations of social enterprises in sport.8

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