Understanding change in organizations: How multiple imprints evolve in social enterprises?

This research draws on the literature on imprinting theory and social entrepreneurship to examine the dynamic processes of imprinting. The aim of the study is to investigate how and why the transformation of imprinting occurs. To explore the main influences of transformation processes, the research was designed as a multi-case study, focusing on social enterprises in Turkey and the United Kingdom. Social enterprises were considered to provide a fertile ground for examining changes in imprints due to their unique position, interacting with various sectoral pressures simultaneously. The research identified four main decision-making dimensions to understand the structural changes of social enterprises: heuristics, values, analytics, and gains. It analyzed which dimensions social entrepreneurs base their decisions on during the founding phase and subsequent periods, and inferred the reasons behind these decisions. The findings allowed for a more detailed examination of the dynamic imprinting process, explaining and illustrating the reasons and mechanisms behind changes in imprints through figures. Additionally, the research presents several theoretical and practical contributions in detail, emphasizing the importance of the four dimensions in understanding the evolution and structural changes of social enterprises.