Social enterprises (SEs) are growing hybrid and innovative business models seeking to connect
social goals with commercial performance to create socio-economic values. Almost 73% of
SEs in Australia are small and operate in resource-scarce environments making them
vulnerable organisations. Value co-creation, as the collective action of individuals to develop
value together, can enable SEs to access the resources that they need to survive, create
competitive advantages, and improve their sustainability and performance. Online
communities (OCs) enable independent and like-minded individuals to co-create value through
collaboration and resource integration in a cost-effective way. Although extant research has
studied value co-creation through OCs from different individuals` perspectives in different
contexts, little is known about how values are co-created and what values are co-created as the
collective action of social entrepreneurs (as the end-users) with each other in OCs. It
specifically remains unclear what motivates social entrepreneurs to participate in OCs, what
factors might inhibit them from engaging in OCs, and what essential abilities they need to have
to be able to effectively participate in OCs. Furthermore, there is a paucity of knowledge in the
literature on what activities are performed by social entrepreneurs in OCs to co-create value
for all parties involved in the process and how social entrepreneurs perceive values as the result
of their participation in OCs.
