Is good intention enough for social enterprises to produce social impact? A decision tree approach

Abstract: This study aims to identify the factors that influence the attainment of high social performance in social enterprises and provide insights into achieving a high level of social performance. To achieve this goal, SPC panel data was employed, containing information on social ventures' social performance, as well as both corporate-level and CEO-level aspects of social mission orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and sustainable financial orientation. The study used a decision tree approach to discern the rules for achieving high social performance. This study utilized six predictors to generate a decision tree for classifying a venture's social performance level, yielding the following key findings: 1) All six variables significantly affect the corporation’s social performance level. The priority was given in the following order: the corporate strategic management ability, the corporate social mission orientation, the CEO’s social mission orientation, the corporate entrepreneurial orientation, the corporate sustainable financial orientation, and the corporate entrepreneurial orientation. 2) Both the corporate level or CEO’s social mission orientations are emphasized rather than both levels of entrepreneurial orientation. 3) Among two different levels of social mission orientation, the corporate level of social mission orientation carries more weight than the CEO’s social mission orientation. 4) In situations characterized by a high level of corporate strategic management ability, either the corporate level or the CEO’s high level of social mission orientation is essential to be in the high social performance group. Based on these results, this study provides both practical and theoretical implications for social ventures.