I arbetslivet har omfattande förändringar ägt rum, vilket har inneburit hårdare villkor för alla men kanske särskilt för dem som av olika anledningar står utanför arbetsmarknaden. Denna uppsats är en fallstudie av ett socialt arbetskooperativ som drivs av människor med psykiska funktionshinder. Studien syftar till att ge ökad förståelse för, och kunskap om, vilken betydelse det sociala arbetskooperativet har, och har haft, för den enskilde kooperatören och vidare för kooperatörernas livssituation i allmänhet, samt deras förhållande till arbetslivet i synnerhet. Vi har gjort en kvalitativ studie grundad på djupgående intervjuer med sex kooperatörer samt med verksamhetens båda handledare. Slutsatserna av vår studie bygger på analyser av dessa intervjuer. Den första och kanske viktigaste slutsats vi har dragit är att deltagandet i Solakoop är för kooperatörerna synonymt med ”det goda arbetet” och har givit dem ökat självförtroende, initiativförmåga och ansvarskänsla. Dock uppbär kooperatörerna ersättning via socialförsäkringssystemet, vilket har flera negativa konsekvenser för den enskilde. Vidare har vi sett att de av Jahoda (1982) identifierade latenta bieffekterna av arbete är särskilt viktiga för människor med psykisk ohälsa och att samtliga uppfylls i det sociala arbetskooperativet, samt att arbetet i det sociala arbetskooperativet har en rehabiliterande effekt på kooperatörernas psykiska välbefinnande och deras sjukdom. Vi har även dragit slutsatsen att arbetet i det sociala arbetskooperativet har fört kooperatörerna närmare den öppna arbetsmarknaden. / Within working life, large-scale changes have taken place which have implied rougher conditions for everyone, particularly for those that are excluded from the labour market for differrent reasons. This paper is a case study of a social enterprise run by people with a mental health handicap. The aim of this study is to gain understanding and knowledge about what the social enterprise has meant for the co-operative’s participants, for their situations in life in general and, more specific, their relationship to working life. We have made a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with six participants and the two guiding mentors of the business. The conclusions of our study are based on analyses of the interviews. The first, and possibly the most important, conclusion we have drawn is that participating in Solakoop has given the co-operators a higher level of self-esteem, power of initiative and sense of responsibility. Dependence on sickness benefits and/or allowances, however, produces large negative consequences for individuals. Furthermore we have seen that the latent by-products of work, as described by Jahoda, are of particular importance for individuals with mental health handicaps and that all of them are accomplished in the social enterprise. We have also come to the conclusion that work in the social enterprise has a rehabilitating effect on the participants’ mental well-being and their diseases. Finally we have drawn the conclusion that working in the social enterprise has brought the co-operators closer to the open labour market.

Sustainable business practices used to be seen as an oxymoron. How James Tansey is making corporate social responsibility business as usual.

This thesis articulates how the Kuh-Ke-Nah network (K-Net) shaped broadband development in remote indigenous communities. K-Net operates under the not-for-profit stewardship of Keewaytinook Okimanak (KO) Tribal Council. Located in Northwestern Ontario, KO brought K-Net to life amongst its six member First Nations in the mid 1990s. As K-Net evolved and expanded its membership, KO established a governance model that devolves network ownership and control to community networks in partner First Nations. This governance model reflects KO’s use of social enterprise to organize K-Net’s community-based broadband deployment amidst necessary partnerships with government programs and industry players. K-Net’s social enterprise has rapidly grown since 1997, when its core constituents fought for basic telephone service and internet access in Northern Ontario. In the space of less than a decade, K-Net communities have gone from a situation in which it was common for there to be but a single public payphone in a settlement, to a point where over thirty now have broadband internet services to households. Technologies now under K-Net control include a C-Band satellite transponder, IP videoconferencing and telephony, web and email server space, and a variety of terrestrial and wireless links that effectively connect small, scattered First Nations communities to each other and the wider world. K-Net’s governance model encourages member communities to own and control community local loops and internet services under the authority of a local enterprise. Community ownership and control over local loops allows First Nations to collaborate with KO to adapt broadband applications, such as telemedicine and an internet high school, to local challenges and priorities. K-Net’s aggregation of demand from disparate users, within and across member communities, creates economies of scale for the network’s social enterprise, and allows a dynamic reallocation of bandwidth to meet social priorities. Based on four years of research with K-Net stakeholders under the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), my thesis documents the evolution of K-Net’s governance model as a reflection of its social enterprise. Drawing from Community Informatics and the Ecology of Games, I trace K-Net’s history and organization to assess how KO, its partners, and K-Net’s constituents, cooperated to make social enterprise viable for member First Nations.

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.