Social finance and the commons paradigm

Purpose: The concept of the commons, or common goods, is becoming increasingly widespread in the world of research and among civil society. The commons are defined as resources that are shared and collectively managed by communities of users, such as natural commons (e.g. fisheries, the climate) and knowledge commons (e.g. Wikipedia, open-source software). The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents the findings of the PhD dissertation “Social finance and the commons,” recipient of the 2017 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award, category Management and Governance, sponsored by Management Decision. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective of the commons, this dissertation investigates how community enterprises govern financial resources as commons to serve the common good. To do so, it builds on data collected on community development banks in Brazil and complementary currencies in multiple countries. Findings: The findings explain how collective action favors the implementation of new forms of governance and management potentially enabling finance to create and support communities. In doing so, this dissertation provides insights on the transformative power of some governance features for the creation of commons. Originality/value: This dissertation advances theoretical and conceptual foundations for a theory of the commons in management sciences. It contributes to a new conceptualization of the commons, especially by extending the concept of commons to finance and showing the variety of commons according to governance structures and values. It also generates theoretical insights into social and community entrepreneurship research through an in-depth investigation of social finance organizations.