There is growing recognition of the important role that collective enterprises for social impact can play in resolving grand challenges. New forms of collective organisation are appearing on a global basis, yet we still know little about the process by which they are created. Paradoxically, the literature tends to rely on the concept of individual agency to explain the emergence of collective organisations. Based on inductive research of two French cases, our analysis unpacks the key role of collective agency in collective enterprises created for social impact. By revealing three dynamics – collective entrepreneurship, collective animatorship and collective organising – and their interrelations, this study provides conceptual clarification of the understudied notion of collective agency in entrepreneurship. The study also takes a fresh look at the creation of collective enterprises for social impact beyond the vision of a ‘heroic’ entrepreneur.

中文翻译：

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创建具有社会影响力的集体企业：代理视角

人们越来越认识到具有社会影响力的集体企业在解决重大挑战方面可以发挥的重要作用。新形式的集体组织正在全球范围内出现，但我们对它们的创建过程仍然知之甚少。矛盾的是，文献往往依赖个人能动性的概念来解释集体组织的出现。基于对两个法国案例的归纳研究，我们的分析揭示了集体代理在为社会影响而创建的集体企业中的关键作用。通过揭示集体创业、集体激励和集体组织这三种动力及其相互关系，本研究为创业中尚未得到充分研究的集体代理概念提供了概念上的澄清。该研究还重新审视了集体企业的创建，其社会影响超越了“英雄”企业家的愿景。