Civil organisations play a key intermediary role in the middle layer between high- level policies and individual-level outcomes in international development. By triangulating among seven Chinese HIV civil organisations with varying organisational models, I examine intermediary activity that illuminates the mechanisms by which civil organisations operate and extends theory about organisations and civil society. Development studies research can benefit from multi-level analyses of organisational processes, which provide insight into how civil organisations shape institutions and networks. My case studies show several new mechanisms that enable organisations to survive and operate in politically fraught conditions, and they offer insight into the complex interactions that allow civil organisations to operate in such contexts. First, HIV civil organisations manage associative stigma resultant from their core activities. I observe that market relationships can buffer against associative stigma transfer for organisations, with many leaders re-positioning their organisations relative to stigmatised individuals, recasting them as employees, customers, and users rather than constituents. Second, these groups use hybrid organising to better manage political risks and build partnerships through selective coupling of organisational components. Hybrid strategies can provide resilience to threats and improve resource management in institutionally plural environments. Third, HIV civil organisations engage in detached, informal, and interactive collaboration with state actors, enabling greater autonomy and innovation among civil actors and reducing risk for state actors. I trace interactions between these strategic activities at the levels of organisational activities, structures, and networks, finding that reproducing ambiguity can sustain new types of collaborations. These findings suggest a need to reconsider the role civil organisations play in society, calling attention to organisational processes that allow these actors agency in brokering flows of information and shaping formation of networks. By viewing civil organisations as intermediaries, new directions can be identified for development policy and practice.

Föreliggande rapport har genomförts i samarbete med uppdragsgivaren Café Forsnäs. Syftet med undersökningen var att ta reda på hur den visuella identiteten för Café Forsnäs arbetsintegrerande sociala företag (ASF) bör se ut för att förmedla deras värdeord och vision, medmänsklighet. Studien inledes med en semistrukturerad intervju med Café Forsnäs för att få djupare inblick i företagets värdeord och vision. En visuell observation utfördes med syftet att få överblick hur andra ASF:s väljer att profilera sig. En semistrukturerad intervju utfördes med ett redan etablerat företag med sociala mål med syftet att ta reda på hur andra sociala företag ser på sin visuella identitet. Ytterligare en semistrukturerad intervju genomfördes med arbetstagande i ett företag med sociala mål. Syftet var att ta reda på om det visuella uttrycket hos ett företag var en avgörande faktor vid sökandet av praktik- eller arbetsplats. En enkätundersökning genomfördes med syftet att undersöka hur Café Forsnäs vision bäst skulle förmedlas: Ett medmänskligt, ekologiskt café på landet. Baserat på enkätundersökningen påbörjades designarbetet i nära samarbete med uppdragsgivaren. Från undersökningen har det framgått att företag med sociala mål oftast inte prioriterar sin visuella identitet. Det framkom också att det är av stor vikt för ett ASF att framstå som strukturerad och seriös gentemot myndigheter och samarbetspartners. Forskning visar att en tydlig visuell identitet bidrar till ett seriöst intryck och slutsatsen som kan dras är att ett ASF därför bör ha en visuell identitet som tydligt kommunicerar företagets vision. Den visuella identiteten skapades utifrån känslan som framkom av enkätundersökningen och utifrån diskussioner med uppdragsgivaren. / This survey is conducted in collaboration with Café Forsnäs. The purpose of the survey was to find out how the visual identity of Café Forsnäs work integration social enterprise should look to convey their value and vision, humanity. The study starts with a semi-structured interview with Café Forsnäs for a deeper insight into the company's value and vision. A visual observation was performed with the purpose of gaining an overview of how other work integration social enterprises choose to profile themselves. A semi-structured interview was conducted with an already established company with social goals with the purpose of finding out how other social enterprises look at their visual identity. A further semi-structured interview was conducted with employees in a company with social goals. The purpose was to find out if the visual expression of a company was a decisive factor in the search for an internship or workplace. A survey was conducted with the aim of exploring how Café Forsnäs vision was best served: a charitable, organic café in the country. Based on the survey, design work began in close cooperation with the client. From the survey it has been found that companies with social goals usually do not prioritize their visual identity. It also emerged that it is very important for a work integration social enterprise to appear structured and serious towards authorities and partners. Research shows that a clear visual identity contributes to a serious impression and the conclusion that can be drawn is that a work integration social enterprise should therefore have a visual identity that clearly communicates the company's vision. The visual identity was created on the basis of the visual sentiment of the questionnaire and on the basis of discussions with the client.

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of social business in the South Bohemian and Pilsen Region, its development and possibilities for further development. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the state of social business in both regions and to recommend possible steps that would lead to a greater development of social business in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part deals with the history of the social economy and its subjects. Attention is also devoted to social entrepreneurship, its development and the principles that social enterprises must follow. Further, there is described the development of social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic, legislation and support possibilities for social enterprises. In this section, there are also examples of countries where social enterprises is working successfully. These are Great Britain, Italy and Poland. The practical part deals with the evaluation of the questionnaire survey, which took place among managers of social enterprises in both regions. Questions in the questionnaire were very broad. There were questions about the size of the enterprises , the cooperation, the problems that enterprises face or the benefits of doing business for the company. Based on the results of this survey, research questions were answered. Further, recommendations are described in this part, which could help to further develop social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic. This is rather a nationwide recommendation. In this case, the empirical investigation is rather supplementary.

The newly emerging Fourth Sector combines a strong social or environmental mission with business practices, and could potentially play a catalysing role in moving society towards sustainability. This thesis explores the extent that Danish social businesses and enterprises are using a strategic sustainable development approach and discusses how such an approach could potentially strengthen their core business. The analytical framework we used is the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, complemented with sector specific elements. To gather our data we conducted twelve semi-structured interviews with Danish social enterprises and businesses, as well as expert interviews. Main findings include that few had both social and environmental goals, that they strategise informally, and few measure their impact. Recommendations to strengthen their core business include incorporating sustainability in their definition of success, making their decision-making framework explicit, and measure and communicate impacts. / Fjärde sektorn kombinerar ett starkt engagemang inom det sociala eller miljöområdet med metoder från affärslivet. Dessa organisationer har potential att bidra till att samhället blir mer hållbart. Denna uppsats undersöker till vilken grad danska socialentreprenörer utnyttjar en strategisk ansats för hållbarhetsutveckling och diskuterar hur en sådan ansats skulle kunna stärka deras kärnverksamhet. Det analytiska ramverket som används är "Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development", som har kompletterats med sektorspecifika uppgifter. Studieresultat inkluderar att få av organisationerna satte mål inom både det sociala och miljöområdet samt att få mätte hur effekten av deras arbete. Rekommendationer för att stärka kärnverksamheten inkluderar att ta med hållbarhet inom framgångsdefinitionen, gör beslutsramverket explicit och mäta och kommunicera effekten av deras arbete. / <p>Stuart Filshie, +46 760-640 650</p>

Impact investors, seeking financial returns from investments that actively create social or environmental value, use a process known as due diligence to vet incoming investment opportunities. Some industry-wide tools have come to aid investors in this task. Existing metrics are not sufficient to assess the environmental performance of investee companies, the result of which is an allocation of increasing investment dollars into ventures and industries that are not operating within the limits of the socio-ecological systems upon which society depends. This paper proposes the creation of an investor toolkit that would allow users to effectively integrate the principles of strategic sustainable development (SSD) into the due diligence process. Such a toolkit would explain how current due diligence support tools could be used to construct comprehensive sustainability analyses of potential investments. The proposed toolkit was conceived after interviews with impact investors, social entrepreneurs, and industry experts. The research findings confirm a need for investors to use a strategic understanding of sustainability during the due diligence process, in order to increase portfolio value over time.

This dissertation is one of the earliest to systematically apply and empirically test the resource-based view (RBV) in the context of nascent social ventures in a large scale study. Social ventures are entrepreneurial ventures organized as nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid organizations whose primary purpose is to address unmet social needs and create social value. Nascent social ventures face resource gaps and engage in partnerships or alliances as one means to access external resources. These partnerships with different sectors facilitate social venture innovative and earned income strategies, and assist in the development of adequate heterogeneous resource conditions that impact competitive advantage. Competitive advantage in the context of nascent social ventures is achieved through the creation of value and the achievement of venture development activities and launching. The relationships between partnerships, heterogeneous resource conditions, strategies, and competitive advantage are analyzed in the context of nascent social ventures that participated in business plan competitions. A content analysis of 179 social venture business plans and an exploratory follow-up survey of 72 of these ventures are used to analyze these relationships using regression, ANOVA, correlations, t-tests, and non-parametric statistics. The findings suggest a significant positive relationship between competitive advantage and partnership diversity, heterogeneous resource conditions, social innovation, and earned income. Social capital is the type of resource most significantly related to competitive advantage. Founder previous start-up experience, client location, and business plan completeness are also found to be significant in the relationship between partnership diversity and competitive advantage. Finally the findings suggest that hybrid social ventures create a greater competitive advantage than nonprofit or for-profit social ventures. Consequently, this dissertation not only provides academics further insight into the factors that impact nascent social value creation, venture development, and ability to launch, but also offers practitioners guidance on how best to organize certain processes to create a competitive advantage. As a result more insight is gained into the nascent social venture creation process and how these ventures can have a greater impact on society.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the current situation of social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic. It emphasizes the importance of social economy, the field between the public sector and the private market sector. This thesis is interested in existing companies which consider themselves as "social" and describes their common features. It presents the social companies' founding years, what their legal forms are, their areas of business and why they consider themselves social. This paper also examines social entrepreneurship in an international context, it endeavours to identify where and how the Czech Republic could inspire itself to improve. Social entrepreneurship in Ireland is analyzed in detail according to the same criteria as social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic. The purpose of this work is to create an overview of social entrepreneurship.

La presente tesi è stata dedicata all’analisi della disciplina italiana della società benefit, introdotta con la legge del 28 dicembre 2015, n. 208. Lo studio parte da una preliminare analisi comparata finalizzata alla ricerca di tendenze uniformi di sviluppo, nel panorama europeo e statunitense, della regolamentazione della c.d. social enterprise, intesa come l’impresa connotata da un’ibridazione tra scopo di lucro e caratteri di socialità. La società benefit italiana sembra collocarsi in questo contesto come una social enterprise “all’americana” trattandosi di un’impresa in cui l’ibridazione tra lucro e socialità è totalmente slegata dal divieto di distribuzione degli utili. L’analisi della disciplina della società benefit, che costituisce il fulcro dell’attività di ricerca, ha riguardato in primo luogo l’inquadramento giuridico, sia in termini di effettiva necessità della sua introduzione sia in termini di distinzione della stessa rispetto alle società “non benefit”. La tesi sostenuta in questa trattazione è che la società benefit colma una lacuna presente nell’ordinamento e si contrappone alle società lucrative ordinarie in una più che ragionevole divisione dei ruoli, essendo dotata di caratteristiche le conferiscono una precisa identità. In secondo luogo, la tesi è stata dedicata ad affrontare i principali problemi interpretativi posti dalla disciplina analizzata, mantenendo come punto centrale della ricerca il tema dell’effettiva corrispondenza tra l’oggetto sociale dichiarato rispetto all’attività concretamente realizzata dalla società - tema che nelle società benefit diviene cruciale per valutare l’effettivo valore della nuova disciplina e delle iniziative sottostanti - e vagliando la compatibilità degli strumenti di controllo offerti dal diritto societario con le specifiche caratteristiche della società benefit. / This thesis has been dedicated to the analysis of the Italian “società benefit”, introduced with the Law no. 208 of 28th December 2015. The study starts from a preliminary comparative analysis aimed at researching uniform trends - in the European and US panorama - in the development of social enterprises’ regulation, i.e. those corporate enterprise forms characterized by hybridization between profit and "sociality" features. The Italian “società benefit” seems to place in this context as an “American” form of social enterprise, as the hybridization between profit and sociality is completely disconnetted from any non-distribution constraint. The analysis of the discipline of the “società benefit”, which constitutes the fulcrum of the research activity, has concerned primarily the legal framework, both in terms of the actual need for its introduction and in terms of distinction of the same with respect to the companies "not-benefit”. The thesis supported in this dissertation is that the “società benefit” fills a gap in the legal system and opposes ordinary lucrative companies in a more than reasonable division of roles, being equipped with features that give it a precise identity in the legal system. Secondly, the thesis has been dedicated to addressing the main interpretative problems emerged by the analyzed discipline, keeping as the central point of research the theme of the actual correspondence between the social object declared with respect to the activity concretely carried out by the company - a theme that in the “società benefit” becomes crucial for assessing the effective value of the new discipline and the underlying initiatives - and assessing the compatibility of the control instruments offered by company law with the specific characteristics of the “società benefit”.

Community-based tourism (CBT), according to Dodds, R. Ali, A. & Galaski, K. (2016), has historically been developed based on a host community’s assets and objectives due to the fact that the "core of CBT planning has been to determine how best to use it as a development tool." As a result, the established CBT development model typically prioritizes community potential as supply at the expense of the market potential of tourism (demand), disregarding to a certain extent the commercial aspects of tourism. From this perspective, questions regarding product strategy, idea generation, business analysis, and how cross-sectoral knowledge production and exchange can strengthen the sustainability and viability of the CBT product have not yet been fully answered in academic literature. This paper builds on the academic literature regarding market access and is further supported by interviews and participant observation conducted in Brazil. This research indicates that these analyses should be complemented with additional questions about product development, capacity-building, knowledge co-production, collaborative networking, and more. The business life cycle of CBT could be considered a foundational pillar in understanding the business viability of community-based tourism projects, and therefore, the expected findings of this study include the proposal of an amended CBT model and practical recommendations that may be implemented into existing CBT projects. / Le tourisme communautaire (CBT), selon Dodds, R. Ali, A. et Galaski, K. (2016), a été largement développé sur la base des atouts et des objectifs d'une communauté en raison du fait que le en raison du fait que “le cœur de la planification de le tourisme communautaire a été de déterminer la meilleure façon de l'utiliser comme outil de développement” (p. 16). En conséquence, le développement du CBT a donné la priorité au potentiel communautaire (offre) au détriment du potentiel touristique (demande), sans tenir compte, dans une certaine mesure, des aspects commerciaux du tourisme. Dans cette perspective, les questions concernant la stratégie de produit, la génération d'idées, l'analyse commerciale et les moyens par lesquels la production et l'échange de connaissances intersectorielles peuvent renforcer la durabilité et la viabilité du produit CBT n'ont pas encore trouvé de réponse complète dans la littérature universitaire. Bien que les analyses concernant l'accès aux marchés soient abondantes dans la littérature (Dodds et al. 2016; Mitchell & Hall, 2005; Mitchell & Muckosy, 2008; Forstner, 2004; Iorio & Corsale, 2014), cet article, informé par des entretiens semi-structurés et l'observation des participants menée pendant le séjour de deux ans de l'auteur au Brésil, soutient que ces analyses devraient être complétées par des questions supplémentaires sur le développement de produits, la formation des capacités, la coproduction de connaissances, le réseautage collaboratif et plus encore. Le cycle de vie des entreprises du tourisme communautaire pourrait être considéré comme un pilier fondamental de la compréhension de la viabilité commerciale des projets de tourisme communautaire, et par conséquent, les conclusions attendues de cette étude incluent la proposition d'un modèle CBT modifié et des recommandations pratiques qui pourraient être mises en œuvre. dans les projets CBT existants. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The theme of the social economy is currently very topical at EU level and therefore in its member states. The emphasisis is on supporting development of social economy, because creates new jobs and leads to economic growth. The thesis aim is to describe the forms of promotion the social economy by EU institutions and their bodies, which is provided in the context of EU employment policy in period 2010-2015. The thesis identifies both forms of support and also justificatin in documents of european institutions and the supprort of social economy in Czech Republic.