The governance of solidarity economy organizations and their impact on community: a configurational approach

Currently there is little empirical evidence on the impact of Solidarity Economy Organizations (SEOs) in their local communities. Using qualitative comparative analysis on more than 6,000 Brazilian SEOs, we analyzed how key rules of governance in combination with the predominant gender of members influences SEO effectiveness for community impact. Results point out four combinations of SEO governance rules and gender that are likely to produce positive outcomes for local communities. Our findings have three implications. They substantiate empirically the argument that the form of governance of SEOs matters and should not be neglected. Second, we show that the rules of governance that improve the social results of SEOs may be more similar to those adopted by traditional firms than generally thought. Finally, our study highlights the influence of gender in combination with other aspects of governance on SEOs effectiveness.