Open Access

Florian Lückenbach, Carsten Baumgarth, Holger J. Schmidt, Jörg Henseler

• International attention is increasingly being drawn to Social Entrepreneurial Organisations (SEOs). This new category of business operates for the benefit of addressing social needs without excluding well-known business principles. Certainly, less attention has been given to the scientific discussion of SEOs; however, there is empirical evidence that the application of traditional management concepts is an important building block in the business model of SEOs. This raises the question of which strategic orientation SEOs follow to be successful. Do they focus on its mission, vision and values or do they aim to satisfy the needs of its stakeholders? How important are innovation and risk-taking? And what defines success in the context of SEOs? In this paper, a measurement of brand, market and entrepreneurial orientation in the context of SEOs is developed (45-item scale). It is also illustrated how the performance of SEOs can be measured (10-item scale). The developed and validated scales fill important gaps in SEO research and in overall research on strategic orientations. In addition, the proposed framework offers a springboard for future research projects on strategic orientations and SEO performance.