Institutionalizing social entrepreneurship in the Global South: How intermediaries work around the indigenous solidarity economy in Colombia

Existing research on sustainability transitions has primarily focused on technological change within national innovation systems, often overlooking social change and global interdependencies. This study examines the emergence of social entrepreneurship as a global sustainability niche that offers an alternative institutional rationality to the prevailing commercial entrepreneurship regime. We introduce a framework that depicts how sustainability transitions unfold across regional subsystems, where intermediaries connecting the Global North and South facilitate niche transfer through institution-building initiatives. Applying the framework to Colombia, we examine how intermediaries from the Global North shape the institutionalization of social entrepreneurship in the Global South along regulative, cognitive, and normative domains. The results reveal how an inchoate institutional environment enables well-resourced Northern intermediaries to play an outsized role in shaping local institutions. Power asymmetries and limited downward accountability reduce the reflexivity of intermediaries leading institutionalization processes, creating tensions with the country's indigenous solidarity economy organizations. The study contributes to the literature on sustainability transitions by unravelling the promises and challenges of foreign-led institutionalization of sustainability niches in the Global South. • Social entrepreneurship constitutes a sustainability niche with a distinct institutional rationality. • The study examines how intermediaries from the Global North institutionalize social entrepreneurship in the Global South. • In Colombia, Northern intermediaries play a significant role in building regulative, normative and cognitive institutions. • Power asymmetries and limited downward accountability limit reflexivity in institutionalization. • The institutionalization of social entrepreneurship generated tensions with Colombia's indigenous solidarity economy.