This study attempts to incorporate the actor-network theory into the context of social-impact ecosystems to explicate how nascent social entrepreneurs build up their own hybrid organization to pursue dual goals. Given that social entrepreneurs cope with the hybridity issues in their founding process, we postulate that self-definition of social enterprise varies depending on how the social entrepreneurs understand the concept of hybridity, i.e. how the social values and economic values are simultaneously achieved in an organizational form. Utilizing Michel Callon's (1984) translation theory, we adopt an interpretative approach to examine how strategic leadership constructs actor networks through a performative, cyclical translation process. Through in-depth interviews with 54 social entrepreneurs in Korea and inductive analyses, our findings reveal that the strategic choices of obligatory passage points (OPPs) are crucial in linking networks related to social values, economic profits, and partnerships. This process results in the emergence of diverse forms of social enterprises—mission-centric, business-centric, and balanced. Our research demonstrates how social enterprises form and strengthen their social networks through these dynamic translation processes, fostering collaborative ecosystems that sustain both social and economic objectives.
