What role can social enterprise play within the third sector? This work stream cuts across all other research programmes, aiming to identify the particular characteristics and contribution of social enterprise.
Our research includes theoretical and policy analysis which explores the concept of social enterprise, examining the extent to which it can be identified as a distinct sub-sector. We are conducting quantitative analysis to map and measure social enterprises, and our qualitative case studies contain a distinct sub-sample of social enterprises.
Key questions
- What is meant by social enterprise? How is the sector changing?
- What is the role of policies aimed at promoting, supporting and contracting to social enterprise?
- What is the distinctive role (positive or negative) that enterprise can play in promoting social inclusion and social cohesion?
- How do social enterprises change over time? What factors shape their growth and contraction?
Current work
1. Measuring social value in social enterprise
2. Social enterprise: the emergence of the concept
- the different meanings of the concept (See paper 46)
- how the discourse relates to data sources used by the sector (paper 43)
- the relationship of social enterprise to the third sector (paper 15)
3. Measuring and mapping of social enterprise
- Understanding the scale and scope of the social enterprise sector (papers 4, 35 and 43)
- Comparative work on earned income, with Janelle Kerlin in the US. (See working paper 47 and paper 69)
- Development of a data base on cooperatives in conjunction with Coops UK
4. Diversity in social entrepreneurship
5. Social enterprises and the state
6. Management issues in social enterprise
- Processes of scaling up, growth and decline in social enterprises (working paper 31)
- Accessing resources (working paper 23)
- Learning and processes of innovating in social enterprises
7. Social enterprises and investment
- Social enterprise and finance in different local contexts
- The provision of social investment and loan finance (SEIF evaluation)
8. Longitudinal Qualitative Sample - ‘Real Times'
- Real Times involves long term in-depth qualitative research with 15 case studies reflecting a range of third sector organisations and activities. These case studies feature questions of direct relevance to social enterprise, including issues of innovation, growth and the relationship between social and economic objectives.
Research contacts