Attention allocation to multiple goals: The case of for-profit social enterprises

The complexity of issues firms have to attend to make it impossible for CEOs to give their full attention to all issues concurrently. Drawing on the attention-based view of the firm, this paper opens the black box of attention allocation in for-profit social enterprises by showing how attention structures and the context in which the firm operates interplay. Utilizing empirical data on 148 for-profit social enterprises, findings show that the attention structuresother-regarding values, utilitarian identity, and resource availabilityhave a significant impact on the relative attention to social goals, while past firm performance as a context variable moderates these relations. Applying the principles of structural and situated attention, this paper makes an important contribution to management theory and attention allocation in for-profit social enterprises. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.