Social entrepreneurship and values work: The role of practices in shaping values and negotiating change

Abstract

Prior research on social entrepreneurship highlights the role and importance of values in managing change, yet few studies examine processes of managing values to achieve social change. Through a longitudinal case study of the social organization Barefoot College, we explored how a social entrepreneur navigated conflicting values to address issues of gender inequality and effect social change. We found that the social entrepreneur engaged in values-related work, purposively interpreting and enacting values-laden practices to bring about a quiet transformation within the community. In our resulting value augmentation model, we capture a process that anchors and amplifies social values, rather than replaces them, and with this model, we develop theory on values work and sustainable social change.