At home among strangers strangers among their own: emergence of social enterprises in hybrid regimes

Building on institutional theory, this study explores how new organisational forms emerge in hybrid political contexts, focusing on the case of nascent social enterprises. The study goes beyond looking at diverse ways in which social enterprises themselves conform to or evade institutionalised expectations, presenting a multi-actor view of challenges associated with external legitimacy in a broader empirical context. Utilising a single-case study research design, findings are drawn from 39 semi-structured interviews with three groups of social actors, including the government, intermediaries, and self-perceived social enterprises in Azerbaijan, a post-Soviet transition economy in the South Caucasus. The findings suggest distinct factors, including an arbitrary institutional context, competing dynamic agendas and behavioural interplay between actors with selective prioritisation and engagement practices hindering the legitimation of new actors in the social impact space. Subsequently, the study contributes to the understanding of the purpose and consequences of legitimation for nascent social enterprises.