Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / Social enterprises are nonprofit, for-profit or hybrid organizations that use business methods to create social change (Dees 2007; Light 2005; Martin and Osberg 2007; Neck, Brush, and Allen 2009;). If it succeeds, the social enterprise model could prove to be a viable pathway to greater social justice in an era of decreasing funding for government services and nonprofits (Emerson and Twersky 1996; Harding 2004; Murphy and Coombs 2009; Wilson 2008). However, skeptics worry that the perils of privatization, bottom-line thinking, and deceptive marketing potentially embodied by the “business methods” that social enterprises employ may undermine the potential of this new approach to solving social problems (Bateman and Chang 2012; Farmer 2009; Nega and Schneider 2014). The three articles that make up this dissertation examined the ways social entrepreneurs perceived and managed tensions between social mission and market institutional logics. Their ability (or lack thereof) to reconcile these contradictory imperatives could contribute to whether social enterprises ultimately succeed or fail as vehicles for positive social change. Social Entrepreneurs at the Crossroads: Four Approaches to Responding to Dual Institutional Logics suggests that the widely accepted characterization of social entrepreneurs as compassionate individuals motivated to address intractable social problems innovatively (Alvord, Brown and Letts 2004; Lehner and Germak 2014; Mair and Marti 2006; Miller, Grimes, McMullen and Vogus 2012) is simplistic. From in-depth interviews with twenty (inter)nationally recognized social entrepreneurs I derived four distinct categories: Disillusioned Dreamers, Social Capitalists, Do-Somethings, and Bridgebuilders. Half of these respondents did not perceive tensions between logics; another quarter did not wrestle with the tensions they perceived. Only the Bridgebuilders perceived tensions and then persisted in focusing on both logics and sets of actors to harness synergies. As a result, only Bridgebuilders offer a truly hybrid model for social mission work within the current economic context, whereas the others hew toward a single dominant logic. One Size Does Not Fit All: Legal Form and US WISEs focuses on work integration social enterprises (WISEs), organizations that address the chronic unemployment of marginalized populations. The data demonstrated that contrary to the expectation that WISEs would exemplify “contested” organizations (Besharov and Smith 2014), eight of the ten WISEs studied did not experience significant conflict between social mission and market logics. Rather, WISEs generally had one logic that dominated their operations: a market logic in for-profit WISEs and a social mission logic in nonprofit WISEs. Workers’ employability emerged as an important variable, with for-profit WISEs creating jobs for more employable populations and nonprofits offering job training and “wraparound” services to harder-to-employ populations. Only two WISEs experienced substantial tensions, when social entrepreneurs attempted to prioritize a job training/services mission within a for-profit form. This data demonstrates that a job creation approach aligns best with a for-profit WISE form and a job training/services approach to a nonprofit WISE form. However, neither form has succeeded in creating a system-transforming model that successfully combines revenue generation with a robust training/services/job creation mission. This suggests that breaking traditional nonprofit and for-profit patterns to deliver substantial market and social mission outcomes within a single organization is a significant challenge. Stakeholder Resistance to Social Enterprise Hybridity examines how social entrepreneurs perceive the support of key stakeholders in their attempts to balance competing social mission and market logics. Despite evidence of social interest in ethical capitalism, this data suggests that well-resourced stakeholders push social entrepreneurs to prioritize price, revenue generation, and measurement. This includes both traditional organizational stakeholders and hybrid-specific stakeholders. Customers and clients demanded low prices and high value. Donors demanded quantification and impact measurement. Investors expected market rate financial return. Finally, social enterprise gatekeeper organizations (fellowship granting bodies) were focused on the market logic characteristics of sustainability, scale, and entrepreneurial ability, pushing the field toward market logic modes of operating. Social entrepreneurs generally responded by acquiescing to pressure to emphasize a market logic in their interactions. Counter to current literature that suggests social entrepreneurs should problem-solve to avoid single logic dominance, social entrepreneurs generally allowed price, business strategy, competition and measurement to shape their interactions with stakeholders. Given the importance of stakeholder buy-in for organizational legitimacy, the field of social enterprise needs to find a way to create and capture stakeholder support for dual logics rather than depending on individual social entrepreneurs to withstand the push toward marketization. Overall, despite persistent efforts at creative solutions to social problems by some individuals, the research shows a strong undertow for social enterprises to adopt business logics and business models. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Studier har visat att det finns ett gap mellan de egenskaper som arbetsgivare eftersöker och de personliga attribut som studenter besitter. Generic skills är personliga förmågor hos en individ som är användbara inom alla yrkesroller och nivåer i karriären och det är en mycket relevant aspekt av begreppet anställningsbarhet. Anställningsbarhet definierades ursprungligen som förmågan att få ett arbete, behålla detta arbete, samt att kunna finna ett nytt arbete om det skulle krävas. Studier har visat att generic skills utvecklas via kontakt med arbetslivet, till exempel i form av deltids- och säsongsanställningar, men en annan viktig metod för att utveckla studenters generic skills är arbetsintegrerade insatser under utbildningen. Syftet med studien var att undersöka huruvida arbetsgivares syn på vilka egenskaper som är viktiga i rekryteringssammanhang stämmer överens med de egenskaper som studenterna tror sig besitta, samt om studenternas uppfattning överensstämmer med de egenskaper som arbetsgivare faktiskt värdesätter. Studien bestod av två datainsamlingar. I den ena datainsamlingen deltog 74 företag inom Trestadsområdet och i den andra undersökningen deltog 466 studenter vid Högskolan Väst. Det huvudsakliga resultatet visade att studenterna tror sig besitta två av de tre, av arbetsgivarna, högst skattade egenskaperna, nämligen ansvarstagande och arbetsmoral. Dessa två egenskaper var även de som studenterna antog att arbetsgivare skulle värdesätta. Resultatet från studien stämmer inte överens med tidigare forskning. Slutsatsen blev att generic skills värdesätts i olika mån beroende på sammanhanget. Avslutningsvis diskuteras det huruvida Högskolan Västs arbetsintegrerade insatser har lett till att studenterna tror sig besitta ett flertal av de egenskaper som arbetsgivare faktiskt eftersöker / Research has indicated that there is a gap between which skills employer’s seek and what attributes student’s actually possess. Generic skills are defined as personal attributes, which are useful in all kinds of professions, at all levels in the career. Generic skills is an inherent part of any discussion about employability. Employability was originally defined as the ability to gain, maintain and regain employment. Studies have shown that generic skills are developed by real world experience, and due to this, work-integration during the education is crucial in order to develop generic skills. The aim of the present study was to compare whether employer’s perception of generic skills are consistent with the skills that students actually possess and if the students perceptions are the same as the one’s that employers value the most. The present study consisted of two surveys. In the first study 74 employers participated, and in the second survey 466 students at the University West participated. The main result showed that students believed they possessed two out of three, by the employers, top-rated skills (responsibility and work ethic) and these two skills where consistent with the student’s perceptions of which skills employers would value. This was not consistent with previous research. The conclusion was that generic skills may be valued differently due to the context. 2 Finally, it was debated if the high level of work-integration at University West could have led to the fact that the students possess several skills that employers value

This comparative study attempts to explain the perceived unsatisfactory level of integration of non-Western immigrants in Denmark by examining a possible schism between attitudes towards integration of elite policymakers and ethnic Danes and non-Western immigrants. So far no in-depth studies of attitudes towards immigrant related issues have investigated the attitudes of policymakers. This thesis addresses this gap with a study of attitudes, which applies a theoretical framework combining rational choice theory with dimensions of social capital. The study focuses on the non-economic costs, especially social transaction costs that immigrants and Danes encounter in the process of integrating immigrants. An on-line questionnaire was distributed to Danes and non-Western immigrants collecting attitudinal quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with policymakers: politicians and bureaucrats at local and national level and representatives of ethnic councils. The study suggests that ethnic Danes and non-Western immigrants have rather similar attitudes towards structural integration, but they differ significantly in their attitudes towards cultural integration. While education, trust and having an out-group friend are significant determinants of the attitudes of Danes and their acceptance of social transaction costs, education and trust in out-group have limited impact on attitudes of non-Western immigrants. It is suggested that ethnic and religious factors are important predictors of attitudes of non-Western immigrants. Policymakers and ethnic Danes seem to have a similar pattern of social contact with immigrants. There are, however, indications that differences of attitudes between Danes and immigrants may be provoked by policymakers’ way of discussing integration. This is more salient among Parliamentarians and bureaucrats. This study shows that social interaction between immigrants and ethnic Danes is important in order to incorporate immigrants on equal terms with Danes, but the policymakers’ discussion of integration may alienate Danes and immigrants and influence negatively their readiness to integrate.

Arbetslinjens tongivande roll anses innebära direkta konsekvenser för det sociala arbetet. I stora drag innebär arbetslinjen att arbetsmarknads- och socialpolitiken utformas för att främja aktivitet framför passivitet. Denna uppsats fokuserar på arbetsintegrerande sociala företag, en typ av sociala företag som erbjuder arbetsträning eller andra sociala insatser för personer som står utanför arbetsmarknaden. I samtalet om sociala företag är arbetsmarknadsintegrering centralt, trots att det saknas entydiga belägg för att sociala företag ökar integrationen på arbetsmarknaden. Samtidigt är det inte helt klart vilket syfte de arbetsintegrerande sociala företagen har. Detta väcker också frågan om möjliga utgångspunkter för verksamhetsutvärdering. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur syftet med arbetsintegrerande sociala företag kan förstås och vilka implikationer detta har för utvärdering av verksamheterna. Forskningsteoretisk utgångspunkt för studien är socialkonstruktionismen. Studiens teori utgörs av tre perspektiv på arbetslinjen: disciplinerings-, självhjälps- och rättighetsperspektivet. Disciplineringsperpektivet innebär att individens eget försörjningsansvar, aktivering och skyldigheter gentemot staten betonas. Självhjälpsperspektivet ger uttryck för en förväntan om ömsesidigt handlande mellan stat och individ, där fokus ligger på att hjälpa individen till självförsörjning. Inom rättighetsperspektivet betraktas arbetet som en social rättighet. Studien använder sig av riktad kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Uppsatsen består av en dokumentstudie med analys av offentliga dokument som följs av en intervjustudie med företrädare för arbetsintegrerande sociala företag. Studien kommer fram till att syftet kan förstås utifrån samtliga teoretiska perspektiv, men främst självhjälps- och disciplineringsperspektivet. Eftersom det i materialet finns uttryck för samtliga teoretiska perspektiv kring arbetslinjen så öppnar det för olika sorters utvärdering, där de undersökta arbetsintegrerande sociala företagen huvudsakligen väljer att utvärdera sin verksamhet utifrån vad de anser prioriterat.

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.

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.

Le travail constitue un levier de rétablissement pour les personnes vivant avec des troubles psychiques ; de nombreux dispositifs existent pour favoriser leur insertion professionnelle. En France, l'accès à l'emploi pour ce public est encore faible et peu de recherches sont réalistes alors que des pratiques existantes sont intéressantes, notamment celle des ESAT de transition de l'association Messidor, qui visent une insertion en milieu ordinaire pour ces personnes. L'objectif de cette thèse était de décrire ce dispositif de transition "par et vers l'emploi" , en le comparant aux pratiques de référence au plan international, et de comprendre comment il peut contribuer à un processus de rétablissement pour les personnes accompagnées.Un volet Accompagnants (étude mixte qualitative puis quantitative) a été consacré à décrire et comparer le dispositif par rapport aux pratiques référencées, et à décrire les métiers des accompagnants, conseiller d'insertion et responsable d'unité de production, afin de voir comment ils contribuent au rétablissement des personnes accompagnées. Un volet Travailleurs (étude quantitative longitudinale, n=160) a été consacré à évaluer la perception des bénéficiaires en début de parcours et à documenter les facteurs prédictifs de leur maintien en emploi dans l'ESAT, d'une évolution positive vers l'insertion en milieu ordinaire et de leur rétablissement.Les ESAT de transition constituent un modèle hybride entre une structure protégée, une entreprise d' économie sociale et un programme d'emploi accompagné. Le binôme d'accompagnants complémentaires, grâce à une posture relationnelle subtile, favorise un changement de regard sur soi. La mise en situation de travail "réelle", avec ses difficultés productives, conjointement à l'étayage des accompagnants qui soutiennent sans assister, conduit la personne accompagnée à retrouver une estime de soi comme travailleur, un regard sur soi valorisé et un espoir en l'avenir, aspects-clés d'un processus de rétablissement. Les bénéficiaires ont une évaluation positive de leur situation en ESAT de transition et confirment le rôle-clé de leurs accompagnants et de l'estime de soi comme travailleur, pour favoriser aussi bien leur maintien en emploi dans l'ESAT, une évolution vers le milieu ordinaire que leur rétablissement. Les implications pratiques concernent le type d'accompagnement à mettre en oeuvre pour ce public ainsi que la formation et l'encadrement à développer pour les accompagnants, afin d'améliorer l'insertion professionnelle et le rétablissement des personnes vivant avec des troubles psychiques en France. / Work is a key-factor of recovery for people with severe mental illness. Various programs exist to support them to gain and maintain competitive employment. In France, the rate of employment remains low for this population and only scarce researches are developed in this field, although some French practices, such as the Ç ESAT de transition È (transitional workshops) of the MESSIDOR association, appear to be performing well. Theses transitional workshops support people with psychiatric disability to gain a competitive employment on the regular labor market while working in a sheltered activity. The goal of this research was to describe the Ç ESAT de transition È program, comparing it to international evidence-based practices, such as supported-employment programs, and to define how this program can facilitate a recovery process for people with a severe mental illness.The first part of this research is intended to describe the program with a mixed method (qualitative then quantitative) in order to compare it with international evidence-based practices and to describe the roles, tasks and competencies of the two professionals supervising people with a severe mental illness, counselors and supervisors, and to define how they contribute to a recovery process for them. A second part of the research is dedicated to clients of this program, with a longitudinal study (n=160) of clinical and psychosocial variables, at the beginning of the program, and in order to document predictive factors of their job tenure in the program, of their positive evolution to work integration on the regular labor market and of their recovery.These Ç ESAT de transition È are an hybrid form of a sheltered workshop, social enterprise and supported-employment program for people with a severe mental illness. In a workplace close to the context of regular labor market, thanks to a subtle relational posture, the two professionals supervising the workers help them to develop a new positive identity, self-esteem as a worker and hope in the future, which are key-factors of a recovery process. Clients have a positive perception of their situation in this program, on clinical and psychosocial variables, and this perception is stable on the 9 months follow-up of the study. They confirm that self-esteem as a worker, counselors and supervisors are key-factors to ensure their job tenure in the program, their positive evolution to work integration on the regular labor market and their recovery. Practical implications and recommendations from this research are the type of support that should be developed in France for people a with severe mental illness to help their work integration, as well as the type of training and supervision that should be offered to the professionals supporting them.

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.

The objective of my diploma thesis entitled "Possibilities and Specifics of Work Inclusion of Mentally Handicapped People" was to find out what the possibilities and subsequent specifics of work inclusion of mentally handicapped people in the Karlovy Vary Region are. I was interested in work possibilities for these people as their inclusion in life of the society leads to full-valued life.It is obvious from the research that there is lack of work opportunities in the Karlovy Vary Region.

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.