Social Entrepreneurship is a research field associated with social value creation and inclusive growth. Social ventures primarily have social goals and reinvest their surpluses to support their mission. Sustainability of social enterprises is a debatable topic. Some researchers and practitioners believe in the long-term sustainability of social enterprises while others cast doubt on this opinion. Therefore, it is an interesting research question to study whether social enterprises are sustainable or not. Reputable scientific resources have been analyzed in order to form a conceptual framework. Two kinds of quantitative methods have been used. The first study addresses the relative financial sustainability of social enterprises by researching and comparing their exit and entry rates to the respective figures of commercial ventures. The second study evaluates the impact sustainability by assessing patterns on employment and involvement statistics of work integration social ventures. Both empirical studies are mainly limited to the Swedish market. The results reveal that though newly founded social ventures have better survival rates compared to the commercial businesses social enterprise is a relatively new field characterized by overall higher dynamics of exit and entry. Additionally, social enterprises that have established themselves on the market are more likely to employee and reach more people, although there are a limited number of such ventures and the most successful cohorts seem to be the recent ones.

This diploma thesis is analyzing civic associations that conduct a social enterprise in Prague. The aim of the paper is to discover, in which measure do the specific associations fulfill economical and social conditions according to the methodology EMES, which represents characteristics for an "optimal social enterprise". Firstly, the thesis examines the idea of the social economics and social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic as well as in Europe. It focuses on the research network EMES of professor Jacques Defourny, and on the legal and economical activity of the civic associations. The methodological part of the paper analysis examples of the specific civic associations through the methodology EMES. For each association, economic and social conditions, based on methodic EMES, are examined through the document analysis method and semi-structured interviews. The output of this thesis are recommendations, that could improve the success rate of the Czech civic associations in an important manner. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Social entrepreneurship and related concepts have received an increasing amount of attention during the last years. Social entrepreneurship is characterized by ventures with a social mission, seeking to address societal challenges and needs. The social goal is the primary goal of the business activities whereas generating economic profit is not the main objective, yet still possible. Social entrepreneurship is often seen as a powerful tool for creating sustainable development, a fundamental goal of many businesses, countries and organizations today. Just like any other firm, social entrepreneurs need finance in order to exist. This thesis seeks to examine how Swedish social entrepreneurs finance their businesses. A questionnaire was sent out to Swedish social entrepreneurs and the results suggest that Swedish social entrepreneurs to a large extent rely on governmental funds and support, personal resources and internally generated capital. Access to the traditional banking system seems to be limited compared to traditional entrepreneurs. There seems to be a gap between the demand and supply of external capital since the majority of the respondents believe that they have a limited access to external capital. 60 per cent of the respondents reported a positive economic result in the last fiscal year. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents want to expand their businesses in the future but the largest obstacles seem to be lack of financing and political aspects. The respondents hope for, among other things, an improved attitude towards social entrepreneurship in general, more financing and increased collaboration with Swedish municipalities. Altogether the results highlight the role of the government in supporting and promoting this type of firms in Sweden.

Previous studies by Cornforth (2003, 2004), Cornelius et al. (2008), Cornelius and Wallace (2010), and Wallace and Cornelius (2010) highlight the need for further research in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for social enterprises and how their governance systems facilitate social outcomes when aligned to organisational mission. Against this backdrop, the main aim of this study is: to investigate the extent to which social enterprises (not-for-profit social providers) pursue ethical practices and social policies underpinned by their CSR agendas that enhance their stakeholders’ capabilities. The conceptual framework for the study is built on Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach (Sen 1991, 1999). Primary data were collected from face-to-face, in-depth, semi structured interviews with twelve owner-managers of small social enterprises from Bradford, UK. These were designed to understand their enterprise’s ethical views towards the development of deprived communities and the role this has in formulating their enterprise’s CSR agenda. The interview data were transcribed and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. The findings suggest that external CSR provision is often prompted as an immediate reaction to problematic issues arising in society. In general, it consequently lacks sustainability and is insufficiently evaluated for long term social impact. It is therefore argued that the CSR agenda for social enterprises should be based more on the organisation’s social ethos than the current process. Moreover, the findings emphasise the importance of social strategy emanating from governance mechanisms as this was identified as critical for the implementation of the CSR agenda so that social value is created in a structured and planned manner. These findings make a contribution to knowledge by providing conceptual and empirical insights regarding the consequences of social enterprises incorporating capabilities into their CSR policies and practices, and its social impact. Moreover, a conceptual model is developed that reflects the strategic importance of such a convergence in achieving this dual purpose.

Social enterprises make up one of the groups of participants that provide welfare services financed by public funding. The object of this study is to describe and analyze from a theoretical point of view which conditions, in what fields, by which division of responsibility and finally through what decisions these social enterprises are allocated a place in the market for social welfare services. The company that has been the object of study offers services in the field of social welfare and in employment. In the study a triangulation of qualitative methods has been used: studies of literature on the subject, recurrent interviews and observations and also reviews of documents. The results have been analyzed from theories on the space available on the market for social services, on social economy and on social capital in the form of strong, weak and bridging bonds. The study indicates that it is important to analyze social enterprises by the help of criteria for companies, social enterprises, the characteristics pertaining to the social entrepreneurs, available space on the market, organization, funding, production, political decisions, approval as a participant and finally choices made by patrons. The study also offers a general checklist with criteria that may be used for analysis and the explanation of social enterprises. / Sociala företag är en av de aktörer som levererar välfärdstjänster finansierade med offentliga medel. Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån ett teoretiskt perspektiv beskriva och analysera vilka förutsättningar, på vilka arenor, med vilken ansvarsfördelning och vilka beslut som ger sociala företag utrymme på den sociala välfärdsarenan. Det studerade sociala företaget erbjuder sociala välfärdstjänster och sysselsättning. I studien har en triangulering av kvalitativa metoder använts: litteraturstudier, återkommande intervjuer och observationer samt granskning av dokument. Resultaten har analyserats utifrån teorier om utrymmet på den sociala välfärdsarenan, social ekonomi samt socialt kapital i form av starka, svaga och överbryggande band. Studien visar att det är av vikt att analysera sociala företag med kriterier för företag, sociala företag, egenskaper hos de sociala företagarna, utrymme, arrangemang, finansiering och produktion samt politiska beslut, godkännande som aktör samt kunderna och brukarnas val. En generell checklista med kriterier som kan användas för analys och förklaring av sociala företag har tagits fram i studien.

Social enterprises are in some contexts considered to be a solution of social exclusion. Studies have tried to reach a deeper understanding of the relatively new phenomenon 'work-integrating social enterprises' by asking questions like 'what is a social enterprise?'. The purpose of this research is to create a greater understanding of how social enterprises can enable and/or restrict work-integration. Data is collected through qualitative interviews conducted on six social enterprise managers. The research focuses on how and to what extent organizational structure components (including functions, target group, leadership and control, along with recruitment and specialization) can lead to work-integration. The research shows a discrepancy of what the social enterprises say they are and what they say they do. I find it to be an effect depending on them being similar to other common enterprises. This is evident in their being located on the regular labor market, having the same demands in competitive and effective production. This research shows how social enterprises restrict individuals just as a common enterprise. By only recruiting individuals with desired abilities and knowledge, the social enterprises reproduces exclusion of individuals and thereby restrict work-integration for the most marginalized individuals. The research also shows that by actually giving a chance of work-integration to marginalized individuals (even if it is a limited chance), social enterprises are an alternative to common enterprises. / I flera sammanhang anses sociala företag vara en lösning på utanförskapet. Tidigare studier har sökt en djupare förståelse av det relativt nya fenomenet "arbetsintegrerande sociala företag" genom att ställa sig frågor som "vad är ett socialt företag?". Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en större förståelse för hur sociala företag kan möjliggöra och/eller begränsa arbetsintegration. I studien har en kvalitativ metod använts i form av intervjuer med sex verksamhetsledare på olika sociala företag. Studien fokuserar på hur och i vilken utsträckning som organisationsstrukturens komponenter (funktion, målgrupp, ledarskap, kontroll samt rekrytering och specialisering) kan leda till arbetsintegration. Studien visar hur sociala företag begränsar individer precis som ett vanligt företag. Genom att bara rekrytera individer med efterfrågade förmågor och kunskaper reproducerar de sociala företagen exklusionen av individer och därmed begränsar de arbetsintegration för de mest marginaliserade individerna. Resultatet visar också att genom att de sociala företagen faktiskt ger en chans till arbetsintegrering för marginaliserade individer (även om det är en begränsad sådan), så är de ändå ett alternativ till de vanliga företagen för individerna.

Tidigare forskning har visat att arbetet i olika aspekter har stor betydelse för människans psykiska välmående. Vi valde att undersöka hur det är att ha varit utanför arbetsmarknaden och att sedan arbeta i ett socialt företag. Syftet med studien var att skapa en förståelse kring vilka behov arbetet uppfyller samt vilken betydelse ett socialt företag har för en individ. Hur upplever individer den period de var arbetslösa? Uppfyller det sociala företaget något särskilt behov för individen? Det teoretiska ramverk vi använde oss av i studien var; den latenta deprivationsmodellen, humanitärt arbete samt inklusion/exklusion. Vårt empiriska material samlades in genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med individer som varit utan arbete men som idag arbetar i ett socialt företag. Här har informanternas upplevelser varit i fokus för att fånga deras unika berättelser. Resultatet visar att informanterna mådde psykiskt dåligt tiden de var utan arbete men att de idag mår bättre som en effekt av att arbetet uppfyller flera väsentliga behov för att en individ ska känna ett psykiskt välmående. Det framgick även att medbestämmande och delaktighet, som är ledord för arbetsförhållandena på det sociala företaget, spelar en stor roll för individens mående i positiv bemärkelse. / Previous research has shown that the work in various aspects is of great importance for human mental well-being. We have chosen to examine how it is to have been unemployed and then to get a job in a social enterprise. The purpose of the study was to create an understanding of the needs that work contributes to and what the importance of social enterprise is for an individual. How have individuals experienced their unemployment? Do social enterprises fulfill any particular needs for the individual? The theoretical framework we use in the study is; the latent deprivation model, humanitarian work and inclusion/exclusion. Our empirical material was gathered through seven semi-structured interviews with individuals who have been unemployed but are currently working in a social enterprise. Through these interviews, we have been able to capture the experiences of the seven individuals and focused on their unique stories. The result have shown that the informants felt mentally ill at the time they were without work, but because work satisfies several essential needs they feel much better today. Co-determination and involvement are key words for the working conditions in social enterprises, which played a major role for the individuals’ positive well-being.

The aim of this study was to identify discourses in the construction of the phenomenon social enterprises in the local context of Växjö, to illustrate the conditions of organized social work. The discourse analysis was done through interviews with different key persons of the local field, who earlier had participated in a medial debate about social enterprises. In accordance to the theoretical perspective of Foucaults approach on discourses, we analyzed the use of language to pursue power. We found that the way of speaking about social enterprises was positive in general when the focus was on the main purpose of their work. When the focus was put on how this purpose would be pursued and accomplished, it was discovered that there were different opinions about that, and two main discourses could be separated. One discourse had the focus on the entrepreneurial aspect of social entrepreneurship and the other had focus on the social aspect. Through the study it became clear that the understanding of the phenomenon is different from various point of views. And since it is unclear what the phenomenon really are, there is an ongoing struggle about the power to define it. We discovered that there is a connection between discourse and power when it comes to social enterprises in relation to welfare state organization.

The aim of this study was to examine how work integration social enterprise (WISE) established their enterprises. To reach the aim we collected data through qualitative in-terviews from six persons with experience of starting a WISE. Four managers, one exec-utive and one consultant. The research focused on their experience of the enterprises’ start up periods. The research shows that the enterprise is searching for legitimacy from its surrounding but in different ways depending who they are interacting with. The research presented in this study also shows four different factors important to WISE in the estab-lishment process; relations, needs, personal resources and the story about WISE.

This research paper seeks to draw on social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) as an overarching framework to examine how unit managers’ ethical leadership style affects the team and individual prosocial voice behaviors in the context of social enterprises in Hong Kong. Ethical leadership has been found to be conducive to both desirable team and individual employee behaviors. However, scholarly understanding of the multi-level effects of ethical leadership and the underlying mechanisms involved is rather limited. Moreover, previous research has directed attention almost exclusively to the influence of ethical leadership in the context of commercial organizations. This narrow stance has curiously left open the question of whether ethical leadership can profoundly and uniquely induce prosocial and desirable outcomes among employees in typical hybrid organizations, such as social enterprises. first conducted 20 semi-structured interviews among employees, unit mangers, and senior executives from 29 social enterprises in Hong Kong to obtain the field illustrations of ethical leadership. Then, I proceeded to collect multi-level, multi-wave, and multi-sources data from employees, unit mangers, and senior executives (i.e., three sources) of 59 teams from the participating social enterprises across three points of times. Findings of both the qualitative and quantitative study confirmed the positive role of ethical leadership in social enterprises. More specifically, this study demonstrated that ethical leadership is vital for encouraging the team and individual to voice out their concerns and opinions through different motivational mechanisms. Team initiative climate mediated the relationships between team ethical leadership and both team and individual prosocial voice; individual prosocial motivation mediated the relationships between team ethical leadership and individual prosocial voice; team initiative climate mediated the relationships between team ethical leadership and individual prosocial motivation; and finally, individual prosocial motivation mediated the relationships between team initiative climate and individual prosocial voice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.