Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe (original) (raw)
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Social enterprises in Europe: a diversity of initiatives and prospects
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When the EMES Network was established, the concept of 'social enterprise'was already used by some third-sector organisations and a few researchers. The adjective 'social'or the qualifying phrase 'with social aims', together with the term 'enterprise', or with a specific legal form as the co-operative, were also envisaged in some national legislation. However, whether the so-called social enterprises were a generalised and well-defined phenomenon, with some common characteristics, was an open question. 1 Against this background, the ...
CONCEPTUALISATION OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN THE UK: A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE
The concept of social enterprise is gaining academic interest worldwide and is increasingly becoming an integral component of the mainstream economies of many countries, including the Unite Kingdom. Despite persistent interest from academics, the concept is relatively underdeveloped inherently complex and there are various aspects of social enterprise that remain largely under researched compared to conventional businesses. Given the advent of globalization and increased competition social enterprises are under pressure to provide more innovative solutions to social problems that society in the UK faces. Through a comprehensive literature review of social enterprises, this paper scrutinizes the evolution of these organizations as they adapt to changes in the environment in which they operates. The discussions show a cultural shift in the conceptualization and practice of social enterprises in the UK.
Social Enterprise in Western Europe
In the last two decades, the quest for a widely accepted definition of social enterprise has been a central issue in a great number of publications. The main objective of the ICSEM Project on which this book is based was to show that the social enterprise field would benefit much more from linking conceptualisation efforts to the huge diversity of social enterprises than from an additional and ambitious attempt at providing an encompassing definition. Starting from a hypothesis that could be termed "the impossibility of a unified definition", the ICSEM research strategy relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the social enterprise phenomenon in its local and national contexts. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major social enterprise models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. Social Enterprise in Western Europe-the third volume in a series of four ICSEM-based books on social enterprise worldwide-will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and others who want to acquire a broad understanding of the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship phenomena as they emerge and develop in this region.
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Social enterprise is an 'emerging' research paradigm, yet it is not an entirely new phenomenon. There are calls from academics, policy makers and practitioners for greater understanding of the organisational models and business practices of social enterprises which this research thesis aims to contribute to. This thesis is based on a selection of my previously published research in the field of social enterprise. The eight publications selected have contributed to knowledge about both operational concepts and the theory building of social enterprise in the UK. My research in this subject area began in 2004 at a time when the concept of social enterprise was in its infancy. The fieldwork was conducted between 2004 and 2007. The publications based on the fieldwork span from 2006 to 2014. I begin this thesis with a contextual commentary on the field of research. The commentary charts theoretical conceptualisations of social enterprise. I map out how my research links to the bro...
Social Enterprises, Benefit Corporations and Community Interest Companies: The UK Landscape
Springer eBooks, 2022
The term 'social enterprise' refers to public benefit organisations that pursue the satisfaction of social needs through the imposition of at least a partial non-profit constraint and by devoting the majority of their positive residuals and patrimony to socially oriented activities. See Borzaga et al. (2009). In the United States, the term has a broader meaning and social enterprise are those using traditional business methods to accomplish charitable or socially beneficial objectives or companies with a significant mission-driven motive, regardless of whether profit is the primary objective. See
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: WHO WINS?
ABSTRACT Objectives: Social entrepreneurship is now embedded within policy objectives set by national and devolved regional governments. This paper attempts to provide an overview of who is involved in social entrepreneurship, what nature this social enterprise takes, and these activities are funded in the UK. Prior Work: Social enterprise’s existence and continued sustainability are deeply intertwined with the enterprise agenda (Howorth, 2006). There is the potential for mis-understanding between social enterprises and policy-makers. Due to their structure and diversity of their business, generic training / support packages from government or their agencies are not flexible enough to respond to specific problems and needs (Crompton and Bull, 2005). Approach: Using data from the GEM UK (2006) adult population survey, the entrepreneurial activity this study attempts to identify those groups of the population displaying the greatest involvement in social enterprise with in the UK. The...