A Quest for a Sustainable Social Enterprise Model: The Case of Amphawa Chaipattananurak, the Kingdom of Thailand

The social enterprise concept, a business with specific social objectives, has been questioned by scholars and practitioners for its sustainability. More importantly, a paucity of research exists on how a social enterprise can be sustainable, indicating the necessity of developing a sustainable model of social enterprise, particularly in the Asian context. Filling in the gap in the literature, the present study’s prime objective is to explore a sustainable social enterprise model. The bodies of knowledge on social enterprise and sustainable enterprise are reviewed, followed by identifying a sustainable social enterprise model for exploration. The identified model is among the few sustainable social enterprise models available, thus making it appropriate for the exploration. To explore the model, the phenomenological paradigm is adopted. The study uses the case study approach with open-ended, semi-structured interview methods as well as documentation to explore a case enterprise called Amphawa Chaipattananurak (ACCP) in Thailand. To ensure data validity, the data, method, investigator, and theory triangulation methods are adopted. Ninety-five stakeholder informants were interviewed, ranging from the management team, staff, community people, and visitors to customers. In terms of analysis, the working analytical framework is adopted to analyze the collected data. Findings indicate that the ACCP practices and outcomes are consistent with those of the sustainable social enterprise model, indicating the model’s applicability. Based on the findings, a refined sustainable social enterprise model is derived. Limitations, future research directions, theoretical contributions and implications, and managerial implications are also discussed.