Appalachian by Design: Lessons on Creating Social Value

Abstract:     
Appalachian By Design (ABD), a US rural non-profit venture, developed a social enterprise to creatively address the isolation and lack of job opportunities that have been a persistent problem in rural Appalachia, particularly for women. The organization introduced a trade into the region, machine knitting, because of market opportunities, and built the infrastructure to support it; including a technical knitting apprenticeship, a distributed production network, a central finishing and distribution warehouse and a national marketing program. There has been great interest in social enterprise as an innovative response to challenging social problems, where mission and market are intertwined in a hybrid organization, such as ABD. The findings from the field show that it is one thing to design such a program, quite another to make it sustainable. At the end of the 2005, the founder of ABD, Diane Browning, with a bank loan due and a financial turnaround needed, faced a difficult decision.

This case explores how an enterprise, with an embedded social mission, navigated shifting economic and market conditions to achieve results in their double bottom line.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 13

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise, Social values, Rural regions, Women, United States of America

Accepted Paper Series