Scaling Social Enterprise: How Social Franchising Supports Sustainable Growth and Impact

Abstract

This dissertation examines the franchising business model as applied to social enterprise (SE) in the context of scaling the size and geographic reach of mission-driven, socially impactful ventures. Social enterprises play a critical role in addressing societal challenges by applying entrepreneurial strategies to solve social and environmental problems while maintaining financial sustainability. Despite their potential, social enterprises often face significant barriers to scaling due to financial constraints, operational inefficiencies, and difficulty replicating impact across multiple locations. This research will demonstrate that franchising provides a uniquely effective growth model for social enterprises, offering a structured framework that enhances financial sustainability, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency. By leveraging the strengths of franchising, social enterprises can expand their reach, maintain mission fidelity, and deliver impact at scale. This research demonstrates that social franchising is not only beneficial for individual ventures but also for society at large, as it enables the widespread replication of solutions to pressing social problems. This research will provide value to the field of humanities as well as business and social entrepreneurship by examining franchising as a model for scaling social impact. It will contribute to the humanities by exploring the ethical, cultural, and societal implications of economic systems, while also offering practical insights for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and stakeholders interested in sustainable, impactful business models.

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Subject Area

Business administration; Entrepreneurship; Management; Operations research

Department

Humanities (HUM)

First Advisor

Witham, Adam

Second Advisor

Catterson, Troy T

Third Advisor

Rutherford, Autstin

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

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