Does the Big Idea drive the social enterprises? The role of mission and vision in scaling up

Abstract

In this paper, we attempt to examine how the ‘Big Idea’ explicated by the founder, drove the social enterprises towards rapid scaling up. By ‘Big Idea’, we mean the broadness and the magnitude of the problem definition by the founder and the attempt by the organization to contribute towards the solution. To examine the dimensions of the ‘Idea’, we study the mission and vision of four health care organizations offering affordable health care services to the underprivileged population in India. We explicate how the mission and vision determined the scope of the problem identified by the founders and, provided the necessary ‘restlessness’ to make a difference that drove the organization towards rapid scaling up.