Given the urgency of global crises, interest abounds in alternative organizational forms (e.g., multistakeholder social enterprises, MSEs), promising structural solutions to engage diverse stakeholders in the creation of joint social, economic, and democratic values. Yet, studies of the who, how, and why of stakeholder engagement are predominantly rooted in for-profit contexts, assuming objective boundaries between insider/outsider stakeholders and engagement as a means to an end. The context of MSEs challenges both of these assumptions. Based on interviews with leaders of 28 French MSEs, I show how the latter made sense of their expectations versus the reality of stakeholder engagement. Leader sensemaking strategies informed the enactment of (revised) stakeholder engagement strategies to maintain coherence, or address misalignment, between expectations and reality. The article contributes to the literature by challenging assumptions of stakeholder engagement in for-profit firms. It also cautions against an overreliance on designated organizational forms to enable substantive stakeholder engagement.

中文翻译：

---

期望与现实：领导者在多利益相关者社会企业中的意义建构和利益相关者参与的实施

鉴于全球危机的紧迫性，人们对替代组织形式（例如多利益相关者社会企业，MSE）产生了浓厚的兴趣，这些组织形式有望提供结构性解决方案，让不同的利益相关者参与创造共同的社会、经济和民主价值观。然而，对利益相关者参与的主体、方式和原因的研究主要植根于营利性背景，假设内部/外部利益相关者之间存在客观界限，并将参与作为达到目的的手段。微型企业的背景对这两个假设提出了挑战。基于对 28 家法国中小企业领导人的采访，我展示了后者如何理解他们的期望与利益相关者参与的现实。领导者意义建构策略为制定（修订后的）利益相关者参与策略提供依据，以保持期望与现实之间的一致性或解决不一致的问题。本文通过挑战利益相关者参与营利性公司的假设，为文献做出了贡献。它还警告不要过度依赖指定的组织形式来实现利益相关者的实质性参与。