Intellectual Capital and Social Enterprises: empirical evidence from Kenya and Uganda

The aim of this study is to identify the main value drivers of intellectual capital (i.e. human, relational and structural capital) which affect the value creation process by social enterprises (SEs) located in Kenya and Uganda, both located in East-Africa. Social enterprises are defined as hybrid organizations, since they are enterprises with a social mission, such as NPOs; however, they simultaneously produce income through commercial activities (such as for-profit organisations) to satisfy and pursue the social mission for which they have been established. With regard to SEs, the activities undertaken to achieve organizational performance are strongly related to human, relational and structural capital. In fact, SEs are characterized by human-capital intensive processes and by supplied products and/or services which implies a significant relational content and tailored to meet the user needs. Finally, the integrated management of economic and intellectual capital allows to create value in the short, medium and long term in accordance with the ethical code and corporate values. A survey has been administered to a sample of SEs located in Kenya and Uganda and it has been designed to gather background information about the social enterprises, social entrepreneurs as well as data pertaining to intellectual capital. Therefore, a descriptive statistical analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been employed to assess differences among the IC components according to the geographic localization and to identify the main components of IC for Kenya and Uganda social enterprises. Our paper can be considered original for two main reasons: the focus on social enterprises located in Kenya and Uganda as research setting and the use of the survey method as IC measurement tool.