Social Entrepreneurship in the Context of Disaster Recovery: Organizing for Public Value Creation

Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in the recovery of areas struck by natural disasters. However, extant research has overlooked the importance of post-disaster social entrepreneurship and how these entrepreneurs organize to create public value. Using a grounded theory approach, we examine eight cases of post-disaster social enterprises that emerged after super-typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines and explain how the social entrepreneurs develop opportunities and organize to create public value over time. We identify extreme and calculated effectuation as key principles in organizing and how they influence the organizations’ ability to provide public services and their ability to survive.