Simon Teasdale, Third Sector Research Centre s.teasdale@tsrc.ac.uk

1. “Demonstrating” the legitimacy of social enterprise: the role of impression management in resource acquisition Simon Teasdale, Third Sector Research Centre s.teasdale@tsrc.ac.uk

2. Theoretical background • Institutional theory • The legitimacy paradox • How can social enterprises accessing start up funding from a variety of resource holders negotiate multiple and conflicting demands? • Goffman and impression management (IM) • The role of IM in resource acquisition by social enterprises

3. Forms of social enterprise Individualistic Social Economic Collective

4. Individual Social Economic GTP Collective Introducing the case National Arts Refugee Support Network Local Arts Community Group Network

5. Individual Ahmed GTP Social Economic Jasmine Laura Collective The multi-faceted social enterprise

6. Individual Ahmed GTP Social Economic Jasmine Laura Collective GTP within its institutional environment Refugee Support Network National Arts Local Arts Community Group Network

7. OIM revisited

8. Findings P1. The front facing social enterprise differs from the backstage organisation P2. Social enterprises are multifaceted; they are seen, used and portrayed in different ways by different internal stakeholders. P3. Social entrepreneurs can exhibit multiple impressions to different external stakeholders in order to acquire resources P4. Resource holders co-construct the impressions presented by the social entrepreneur P5. Each resource holder has a strategic interest in the social enterprise being portrayed in a certain way. P6. Social entrepreneurs can use OIM to resist coercive isomorphic pressure P7. Social entrepreneurs can use present different organisational impressions to different stakeholders to negotiate multiple and conflicting demands.

9. Contribution to the literature (Ceteris Paribus) • The greater the number of external audiences an organization must satisfy, the greater the potential role of multiple impression management. • The more homogenous the expectations of the different audiences are, the stronger the likelihood of being able to convey a single strategic impression. • The more powerful the audience (relative to the actor) the more likely that the actor will attempt to convey the impression of conforming to what the audience expects.