Referee, Sponsor or Coach: How Does the Government Harness the Development of Social Enterprises? A Case Study of Chengdu, China

This paper examines how the government harnesses the development of social enterprises. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study in Chengdu City, China, we find that institution building, financial supporting, incubation developing, systematical cultivating and resource matchmaking are the main strategies employed by the municipal government to promote the development of social enterprises, whereupon we argue that besides the role as referee and sponsor which are the governments' traditional roles in western countries, the government in China also play a role of coach in harnessing the development of social enterprises. This paper contributes to the literature by theorizing how administrative forces affect the growth of hybrid organizations and also contributes to providing empirical evidence of the institutional environment of social enterprises in China.