Aligning multiple mandates and mission simultaneously: a case of small and medium-sized social enterprises in South Africa

Research has shown that social enterprises balance dual-mandated goals emanating from the respective social and commercial logics, to avoid mission drift. However, little is known about the practical ways to simultaneously align multiple goals stemming from multiple external mandates and core social mission. These multiple mandates are embodied within multiple logics. To address this issue, this research analyses how small and medium-sized social enterprises (SMSEs) in resource-constrained environments like South Africa act as melting pots of multiple mandates and core mission that require simultaneous alignment. The study reveals that at a meso-level, the SMSEs leverage community embeddedness, mission agility, and proactive monitoring and evaluation to simultaneously exploit and explore opportunities. The study introduces a framework for internal-external practising facilitating innovative exploration to align multiple mandates with the core missions at a meso-level in social enterprises. With these findings, this study adds to the emergent literature on multiple mandates alignment in social enterprises.