Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the inhibiting factors of partnership creation between social entrepreneurs in the business, government, public and non-profit sector. Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines four cases of social entrepreneurship in the start-up phase. Each case is studied in real time, for a period of two years. Findings - The empirical research reveals that partnership creation for social enterprises between a social enterprise and organizations in various sectors is inhibited by conflicting interests and diverging speed of on one hand and by the conflicts that originate from the opportunity-seeking behavior of the social entrepreneur and the risk avoiding behavior of the organizations. While the social start-ups that managed to neutralize such inhibitors succeeded, the start-up enterprises that did not manage to do so failed. Originality/value - While, there is a sound body of knowledge of the factors that inhibit the more traditional single and cross-sector partnerships, relatively little is known about the factors that inhibit the partnerships between social enterprises and organizations in the business, public, government, and non-profit sectors in society.
