As the field of Social Enterprises has strongly grown over two decades, the importance of Social Enterprises for the society has also grown and still developing, more and more to a third economic segment between the private and public economy. Within this study we explain how “Small and Medium sized Social Enterprises” (SMSEs) can face the increasing pressure to measure and demonstrate their impact to society and their stakeholders. We especially address the limitations in skill and resource endowment, which SMSEs most commonly face. We execute this research based on a practical and outcome-oriented method and therefore apply an overall pragmatic research philosophy. The research is further designed around a narrative strategy, with an exploratory mono method cross-sectional study. For the collection of empirical data, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with (Social) Entrepreneurs and their stakeholders. This study finds a language barrier between SMSEs and their commercial stakeholders, caused by low willingness from the Social Entrepreneurs’ side to adapt to a commercial business language. The findings of this study further imply that SMSEs are capable of using surveys to measure their performance quantitatively, in terms of in- and output. More importantly, our results suggest that these measurements, completed with additional “soft” measurements to “qualified narratives”, are sufficient to prove the SMSEs’ performance to their stakeholders. Finally, this study takes up an existing contingency model and enriches it with the revealed discoveries, to a more comprehensive measurement approach for SMSEs. It thereby contributes to the field of Social Enterprises and lays valuable foundations for further research.

The social enterprise ethos of prioritizing people over profits seems to align closely with disability-based organizations and their sister businesses created to provide vocational training and meaningful activity for clients. Rather than create a workplace tailored to a singular disability group, 541 Eatery & Exchange located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada aims to deliver on the restaurant’s mandate to ‘welcome everyone around the table’ by fostering a work environment, culture and practices that are attuned to the needs of a diverse population of disabled people as one group among a broader community of paid employees and volunteers. Through an ethnographic case study and interviews a detailed picture of the successes and limitations of this model emerges as the café balances the demands of addressing food insecurity in a socially and economically challenged neighbourhood while simultaneously providing opportunities to develop new capacities, foster new forms of social encounter and work experience for its paid staff and volunteers. As demonstrated by the restaurant, organizing a business around the collective goal of placing people first and meeting them where they’re at – geographically, but also in terms of their physical, mental, and emotional state on the given day – can create a space of care, dignity, and authentic human connection within which to work while addressing the needs of its community members. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Στην παρούσα εργασία επιλέγεται η Κοινωνική Οικονομία και Επιχειρηματικότητα ως απάντηση στην κρίση στην περιοχή του Δήμου Πατρέων. Συγκεκριμένα, προτείνεται η εκπόνηση μελέτης σκοπιμότητας δημιουργίας Θερμοκοιτίδας Κοινωνικών Επιχειρήσεων στην περιοχή παρέμβασης ως μέσο επιτάχυνσης της ανάπτυξης των κοινωνικών επιχειρήσεων,άμβλυνσης των κοινωνικοοικονομικών προβλημάτων που αντιμετωπίζει η περιοχή παρέμβασης και ενεργοποίησης ενός τοπικού οικοσυστήματος Κοινωνικής Οικονομίας και Επιχειρηματικότητας. / In the present study Social Economy and Entrepreneurship is chosen as a response to the crisis in the Municipality of Patras. Ιn particular a drawing up a feasibility study for the setting up of a Social Enterprise Incubator is suggested as a means of acceleration of the evolution of social enterprises, reduction of the social and economic problems of the area and the activation of a local ecosystem of Social Economy and Enterpreunership.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / The main aim of this study was to make contributions to the body of literature on social enterprises, and more specifically in an African context. The nascent nature of social enterprises as an organisational structure is one of the reasons that the body of research and literature is not as expansive as other more established research fields. Social enterprises differ from traditional commercial enterprises in that they bridge the gap between commercial growth, and social and economic development goals. For the purpose of this study, social enterprises refer to any business that pursues commercial activity to address a social problem. They are becoming more noticeable as a driver of sustainable job creation, service delivery, social development and economic growth. Ensuring their sustainability is expected to have positive economic consequences, which is why studying social enterprise sustainability is important and even more so for developing countries. Qualitative methodology was used to collect data. Purposive sampling was employed to select the sample that was included in the case study in Cape Town. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather information. The data was analysed using content thematic analysis to explore and interpret the meaning of the participants’ views and experiences. A networking approach of the social capital theory was used as the theoretical framework that provided a guide on the discussion of the findings. For the purpose of this study, social capital was defined as the resources embedded in networks. The findings indicated that the social entrepreneurs’ did not consider networking as the sole contributing factor to social enterprise sustainability, but rather the contribution of multidimensional factors. The resources embedded in networks that were considered valuable were: 1. Information and innovation, 2. Credibility, 3. Mentorship and advice, and 4. Support. The participants also gave their opinions on policies that would create favourable conditions for sustainable social enterprises i.e. information accessibility, public-private partnerships, and education and training. This study makes contributions to literature in an African context and to social enterprise practice.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Social entrepreneurship has spread worldwide, as social entrepreneurs seek the solutions to developmental challenges. This is especially true in Nairobi, Kenya, as social entrepreneurship has established itself in the labor market. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of social enterprises in African countries, especially with regards to the labor market. It is for this reason that this study aims at highlighting the impact of social enterprises on the labor market in Nairobi, Kenya. It also provides an outline of the labor market structure in Nairobi. The study employed a mixed methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, collected concurrently as part of a concurrent triangulation design. Five social enterprises located in Nairobi were involved in the study, and were chosen through snowball sampling. These social enterprises offered direct employment, training programmes or support for beneficiaries to start their own businesses. The research instruments used in this study were as follows; 10 interviews (5 interviews with beneficiaries and 5 with social entrepreneurs), 50 questionnaires distributed to beneficiaries through random sampling, field work observations and a literature review. The results of this study were that social enterprises in Nairobi have a significant impact on the livelihoods of beneficiaries by directly employing them, providing necessary skills for later employment or supporting them to start their own businesses. However, these increases in income are often either inadequate or inconsistent as most beneficiaries are forced to diversify their livelihoods. Social enterprises also fail to reduce the gender wage gap among their beneficiaries. Social enterprises also increase market access among their beneficiaries by providing them with advice and training, as well as, direct access to customers. In the same vein, they increase the level of training of beneficiaries. This helps beneficiaries improve their relations with customers, produce high quality goods, hone their skills, gain employment, gain experience, build a repertoire, earn profits and start businesses. The subject of training also affects the income levels of beneficiaries, as many of those who study entrepreneurship, quality training and customer service earn above minimum wage. Additionally, social enterprises impact formalization among their beneficiaries. However, once beneficiaries leave, they often return to the informal sector. Therefore, the impact on formalization is only significant while beneficiaries are participating in the social enterprise. Social enterprises also influence the attitudes of beneficiaries, creating a more positive outlook on their contribution to the labor market. Likewise, social enterprises shift perceptions about formal qualifications as beneficiaries feel that they can still secure employment by showing their level of experience or body of work. Lastly, social enterprises have limited impact on fair trade ideals as majority of the social enterprises in Nairobi are not knowledgeable about fair trade, and therefore do not aim towards it. For those that do adopt the fair trade model, it is unclear if they have influenced their beneficiaries to actually believe in these ideals or just simply require them to comply with fair trade regulations. In conclusion, the study determined that social enterprises do have significant impact in the labor market structure, increasing livelihoods, improving educational qualifications, and influencing formalization and attitudinal structures in Nairobi. However, social enterprises must also focus on improving their impact with regards to strengthening livelihoods, especially among their female beneficiaries and creating permanent change in formalization among their beneficiaries even after they leave the enterprise. Likewise, social enterprises should consider the importance of fair trade ideals in their daily practice, and the value of imparting these to their beneficiaries.

Social enterprises may be instrumental to overcome the well-known difficulties of State provision of social welfare services. Considering the impressive movement of social entrepreneurship and innovation witnessed in most European societies, coincident with the decline of economic growth and the rise of unemployment, the idea of a transition from a welfare state to a welfare mix gains interest. For social enterprises to meet the challenge, they need to scale up operations. Moreover, for that purpose they should be able to diversify the finance resources used, instead of relying mainly on subsidies and donations. However, so far not much progress has been made in that direction what led (Daggers & Nicholls, 2016) to identify as a critical research topic: how do social investment markets develop? That research question was investigated in the Portuguese context. Besides a conceptual framework, literature review allowed to identify the factors that currently are believed to determine demand in social investment markets: i) impact; ii) return; iii) double cost issue; iv) financial dead zone; v) investment readiness; vi) ecosystem. Theory development was greatly enhanced from the contacts made with the Project Manager of an ongoing applied research project launched by European Investment Bank Group on a similar topic: “Social Enterprises Access to Finance – An exploration into the constraints around social businesses access to finance in Portugal”. The importance of the research question becomes clear from the fact that, in spite of all the knowledge and attempts, for some reason not yet identified, social investment market does not grow. The investigation revealed that the key to the problem had to be looked in the demand side of the market and that there is reason to believe that social and cultural characteristics of demand agents are being overlooked. This supported the main theoretical proposition: Portuguese social investment market development will be unlikely to occur as expected from current understanding about how the market operates, unless prevailing characteristics of the social and cultural structure of demand agents are also taken into account. The investigation was conducted through case study research. A rival theory was elaborated and study propositions were defined for both main and rival theory. Multiple sources of evidence were collected and from the respective analysis the study propositions of the main theoretical propositions were corroborated. None of the study propositions of the rival theory were corroborated. The conclusion was that initiatives for growth of Portuguese social investment market will have to integrate a factor that so far has been neglected. Indeed, social and cultural characteristics are a determinant a demand that needs to be considered.

Governments and society are looking, increasingly, to specialist organisations such as social enterprises to address complex social problems, leading to a rise in their numbers. These organisations regularly access difficult to reach, disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities and tend to be smaller in size and turnover than for-profit commercial organisations and typically more resource limited. The growth in corporate social responsibility and individual citizenship has helped to redress this limitation with essential altruistic resource donations from these external agencies to supplement traditional sources of support. Social media is the obvious medium for social enterprises to acquire knowledge and resources to support their social agendas. Following a sequential mixed methods design, a model is developed to appraise the impact of the various contributions from social media networks on social value creation. This model is predicated on the extant literature, mostly on for-profit organisations, contextualised and a questionnaire developed to represent social entrepreneurship from interviews with social enterprises in the UK. Data is collected from two hundred and thirty-one UK based social enterprises whose mission is to provide social value for their target populations. The model is validated for factors that lead from knowledge sharing due to social media networking to concomitant increases in social provision by fitting to these data. Findings demonstrate that social media use leads to increases in social value creation through knowledge sharing. The novel construct of enhanced organisational performance is shown as seminal in enabling shared knowledge gained from social media to be converted into increased social value.

The inability of the public sector to satisfy social needs - like poverty alleviation, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, unemployment, health and education - are redefining the relationship between the governments and their citizens by making the latter play an active role as the provider of the welfare state. Citizens through their entrepreneurial activity have been pulled to the third sector leading to the emergence of new organizational forms like social enterprises and social franchises. The main focus of this research study is the investigation of the new interorganizational format of social franchising which has received ‘scunt’ research attention up to now. The behaviour of actors and organizations in the social economy sector are influenced by the properties and dynamics of elements coming from the political, social, organizational and individual level. We have adopted a systems approach of social network theory. A grounded theory named Social Franchise Model (SoFraM) has been induced from an exploratory empirical mixed method study conducted at various stages and from different sources during a time frame of thirty months. Primary data were raised through six case studies in the UK and Greece, more than 143 interviews with social entrepreneurs and various stakeholders and three action research projects which were the subject of analytic induction supported by archival analysis of secondary data coming from governmental, European Commission, local authority and other sources. Our findings indicate that the formation, growth and success of social franchises is heavily shaped through: firstly, law, regulations, and incentives introduced by centralized or formal institutions- both supranational and national- as well as their driving logics; secondly, the relational and structural embeddedness of actors in networks and the social norms that subsequently emerge; thirdly, the characteristics of the individual social entrepreneurship profile; and finally elements of the social innovation model adopted. The properties of the system of informal or decentralised institutions of networks have been further explored through a pilot quantitative study on mainstream franchises in the UK and Greece. An online self-administered questionnaire has been created based on our conceptual framework of the Franchise Network Model (FNM) drawn from existing scales from literature. The findings indicate that relational and structural embeddedness of actors and organizations in networks determine choices of formation, partner selection, governance mode and the subsequent performance of franchise systems.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Social entrepreneurship has spread worldwide, as social entrepreneurs seek the solutions to developmental challenges. This is especially true in Nairobi, Kenya, as social entrepreneurship has established itself in the labor market. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of social enterprises in African countries, especially with regards to the labor market. It is for this reason that this study aims at highlighting the impact of social enterprises on the labor market in Nairobi, Kenya. It also provides an outline of the labor market structure in Nairobi. The study employed a mixed methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, collected concurrently as part of a concurrent triangulation design. Five social enterprises located in Nairobi were involved in the study, and were chosen through snowball sampling. These social enterprises offered direct employment, training programmes or support for beneficiaries to start their own businesses. The research instruments used in this study were as follows; 10 interviews (5 interviews with beneficiaries and 5 with social entrepreneurs), 50 questionnaires distributed to beneficiaries through random sampling, field work observations and a literature review. The results of this study were that social enterprises in Nairobi have a significant impact on the livelihoods of beneficiaries by directly employing them, providing necessary skills for later employment or supporting them to start their own businesses. However, these increases in income are often either inadequate or inconsistent as most beneficiaries are forced to diversify their livelihoods. Social enterprises also fail to reduce the gender wage gap among their beneficiaries. Social enterprises also increase market access among their beneficiaries by providing them with advice and training, as well as, direct access to customers. In the same vein, they increase the level of training of beneficiaries. This helps beneficiaries improve their relations with customers, produce high quality goods, hone their skills, gain employment, gain experience, build a repertoire, earn profits and start businesses. The subject of training also affects the income levels of beneficiaries, as many of those who study entrepreneurship, quality training and customer service earn above minimum wage.

Bakgrund: Arbetsintegrerande sociala företag integrerar människor som varit utanför arbetsmarknaden under en längre period genom arbetsträning och sysselsättning. Kravet innebär att medarbetarna ska vara delaktiga i arbetet, företagets drift samt beslutfattandet vilket bidrar till personlig utveckling och empowerment. Beslutsfattande i sociala företag är komplext i och med att de ska balansera ekonomiska och sociala mål. Delaktighetskravet går att tolka och hur delaktighet skapas skiljer sig mellan organisationer. Vidare skiljer sig graden av delaktighet bland medarbetarna i en organisation. Genom att undersöka de komplexa beslutsprocesserna i arbetsintegrerande sociala företag ämnar vi få en förståelse för vad medarbetarnas delaktighet innebär för organisationsstrukturen och beslutsprocesserna utifrån ett organisationsperspektiv. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa en förståelse för vad kriteriet om delaktighet i definitionen av arbetsintegrerande sociala företag kan innebära i praktiken. Metod: Denna studie har en kvalitativ karaktär med en abduktiv ansats där syftet och frågeställningarna besvaras genom att studera ett fallföretag utifrån ett konstruktionistiskt perspektiv. Undersökningsmetoderna som har använts är en deltagande observation och intervjuer med representanter från fallföretaget. Slutsats: Fallföretaget skapar delaktighet genom att de följer de kooperativa principerna och har en demokratisk struktur. Delaktigheten grundar sig i att deltagarna och de anställda själva har valt att delta i verksamheten. Vidare har studien kommit fram till att möten och kommunikation är viktiga verktyg för att skapa delaktighet och empowerment. Studien har även belyst begränsningar i graden av delaktighet vilket kan kopplas till den valda organisationsstrukturen, den ekonomiska situationen, medarbetarnas arbetsförmåga samt kommunikationsbrist. Delaktighetskravet innebär att arbetsintegrerande sociala företag måste ha en decentraliserad struktur där medarbetarna är delaktiga i beslutsfattandet. Valet av organisationsstruktur och beslutsprocesser kan i sin tur både möjliggöra eller begränsa graden av medarbetarnas delaktighet i arbetsintegrerande sociala företag. / Background: Work integrating social enterprises integrate people that have been excluded from the labor market during a long period of time by offering training or employment. The definition of work integrating social enterprises includes a criteria of workers participation. The requirement of participation means that the workers must be involved in the company’s operations and decision making, which contributes to personal development and empowerment. The decision-making process is complex since it has to balance economic and social goals. The requirement of participation in the definition of work integrating social enterprises can be interpreted in various ways and the way participation is created in organizations also varies. Furthermore, the degree of participation among the workers differs in the organization. By studying the complex decision-making processes in work integrating social enterprises, we intend to create an understanding of what the workers participation entails for the organizational structure and decision-making processes from an organizational perspective. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of what the criteria of participation in the definition of work integrating social enterprises can mean in practice. Methodology: This study has a qualitative character with an abductive approach. The study has a constructionist perspective and a case study design has been chosen. A participatory observation and interviews with representatives from the chosen organization has been used as methods to reach the purpose. Conclusion: The organization creates participation by following the cooperative principles and by having a democratic structure. The participation is based on the participants and the employees choosing to participate in the activities themselves. Furthermore, the study has concluded that meetings and communication are important tools for creating participation and empowerment. The study has also highlighted limitations in the level of participation in the company which can be linked to the chosen organizational structure, the economic situation, the workers’ capacity of working and the lack of communication. The requirement of participation means that work integrating social enterprises must have a decentralized structure in which workers are involved in the decision making. The choice of organizational structure and decision-making processes can in turn, enable or limit the degree of participation in work integrating social enterprises.