Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold. The first was to explore the relationship between strategic planning (SP) and social enterprise performance (SEP). The second was to ascertain the mediation of value co-creation (VCC) to the relationship between SP and SEP. Design/methodology/approach: This study followed a quantitative methodology using a survey conducted with 147 social enterprises (SEs). The location of the study was the Eastern Cape, a province in South Africa. Respondents to the study occupied the status of key decision-makers who either owned or managed a SE. Findings: The findings show that a relationship exists between SP and VCC; VCC and SEP; and finally SP and SEP. Concerning the mediation, results show that VCC had a fairly weak positive and significant mediating effect on the relationship between SP and enterprise performance. Originality/value: There are renewed calls for research that focuses on understanding issues related to the management of SEs, especially within the South African context. Such calls stem from the high dependence on state support to alleviate challenges experienced by communities. The role of SEs in such a context is thus heightened. The findings give support to issues that assist not only in understanding the decision-making capability but also in understanding the role of VCC.

Acta Commercii is a journal that seeks to promote research within the ambit of management and related disciplines. As such, the Journal endeavors to serve as a platform for refreshingly new and invigorating approaches to, and findings of, research relating to management and associated disciplines. It includes disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and problem orientated work.

In recent years, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) has emerged as a research approach to get insight into social science and business complexity. In contrast to the inferential methods that measure the net effect of an independent variable into a dependent variable, the QCA approach uncovers the necessary and sufficient conditions leading to a desired outcome. This paper discusses complexity in social science and business from the QCA perspective. In this regard, there are three streams of literature in strategic management aiming to explain how some firms outperform others: Porter´s competitive advantage approach, Barney´s sustained competitive advantage perspective, and D´Aveni´s temporary advantage. However, the sustained competitive advantage approach suggests that generating economic rents must be understood as a complex phenomenon characterised by three features: i) path dependency (e.g., some resources and capabilities can only be developed over long periods, ii) social complexity (e.g., it may not always be clear how some firms develop some capabilities in short to medium term), and iii) causal ambiguity (e.g., some resources and capabilities cannot be bought and sold in markets). Therefore, this framework draws from a complex (or complexity) process that establishes logical connections between combinations of causal conditions (i.e., resources and capabilities) and a desired outcome (i.e., economic rents). The research methodology for business from the QCA perspective thus may raise some critical questions: How do some firms accumulate and deploy resources and capabilities more efficiently than their competitors to internally (not in markets) acquire and sustain a competitive advantage? And what is the nature of a firm´s economic rents? In short, this paper discusses the nature of sustained competitive advantage (i.e., desired outcome) as a complex process (and not as a linear process) in that some firms outperform others, managing and deploying different resources and capabilities (i.e., conditions).