Business as Mission Theses and Dissertations

Trisha Bailey

Date of Award

5-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

First Advisor

Hyuk Kim, PhD

Second Advisor

Jonathan Wilson, PhD

Third Advisor

Marie Bakari, DBA, MBA

Abstract

Sustainable economic development is a challenge in bottom of pyramid (BOP) communities, such as those in Myanmar, where people live in subsistence conditions. Contributing factors are the lack of vocational training and education available for BOP community members. The UN and the OECD are rallying the organizations around the world, including social enterprises, to address the challenge of increasing sustainable economic development. Social enterprises are businesses that address social and environmental challenges while creating economic profit. Some social enterprises offer vocational and education training (VET) in the BOP communities in which they operate. The problem addressed by this study is how social enterprises balance multiple stakeholder needs in providing VET for the Myanmar BOP communities’ sustainable economic development, such as differences in wages and self-efficacy. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to compare the differences in wages and self-efficacy in the Myanmar BOP community between people who completed a social enterprise VET program and who did not complete the program. In specific, this study aimed to examine how social enterprises balance multiple stakeholder needs in terms of stakeholder theory as the theoretical foundation. The research site was the training center of a US-based social enterprise operating on the Thailand-Myanmar border. The study sample was a purposive sample method with an equal sample size of 49 VET trainees and 49 non-VET trainees, all from the Myanmar BOP. Archival data regarding wages and self-efficacy from 2012 to 2020 were collected from the US-based social enterprise director. The findings were that there is a statistically significant difference in wages and self-efficacy between VET trainees and non-VET trainees. The results of this study support the pivotal role of social enterprise in facilitating sustainable development. There is a need for studies about social enterprises operating in fragile and post-conflict nations.

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