FAITHFUL ADAPTATION: SPIRITUAL CAPITAL AS AN INNOVATION RESOURCE IN FAITH-BASED SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: EVIDENCE FROM CONSECRATED WOMEN IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF NAIROBI
Abstract
Faith-based social enterprises occupy a distinctive position in African civil society, yet the mechanisms through which religious commitment shapes their innovation and sustainability remain poorly specified. This study examines how spirituality operates as an organisational resource in social enterprises led by consecrated women in the Archdiocese of Nairobi, Kenya. A concurrent mixed-methods design combined a structured questionnaire completed by administrators, finance managers and assistant administrators with in-depth interviews conducted with seven regional superiors. Quantitative data were analysed in SPSS (version 30); interview data were analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase procedure. Innovation and sustainability were strongly associated, R² = .808, F(1, 180) = 758.83, p < .001, B = 0.96, β = .90. Because both constructs were measured by the same respondents on the same instrument at the same time, this figure is best read as an upper-bound estimate inflated by common-method variance, and as evidence of perceptual alignment rather than of causation. The interviews supply the interpretation. Participants described not technological novelty but faithful adaptation: mission-preserving change, triggered by a shortfall in the capacity to serve, screened against congregational charism before financial viability, and authorised through communal discernment. Spiritual commitment is theorised as the source of spiritual capital, which accumulates in four forms — collective discernment, trust networks, contemplative practice and values-based leadership — each of which both enables and rations innovation. Findings represent the perspectives of enterprise leaders; employee, beneficiary and community perspectives were not captured, so claims regarding mission fidelity and trust are limited to leaders’ self-assessments. The qualitative findings, resting on seven interviews, are exploratory rather than saturated.
Keywords: social entrepreneurship; spiritual capital; faith-based social enterprise; innovation; sustainability; women religious; Kenya
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