Citation
Doherty, B. (2013), "Social Enterprise Journal comes of age", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 9 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-07-2013-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Social Enterprise Journal comes of age
Article Type: Editorial From: Social Enterprise Journal, Volume 9, Issue 3
I am delighted to introduce to you the Social Enterprise Journals third edition of 2013 published by Emerald publishers. First, I would like to thank the journal board, the selected reviewers and of course the authors for the papers enclosed.
This is now my 24th issue as editor and I have been very pleased with how SEJ has developed from a UK centric journal to become the leading international journal in the field of social enterprise (see recent article by Stewart and Cotton (2012) on Making sense of journal rankings in the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior Research). This issue is yet another illustration of the international focus of the journal.
The first paper by Dr Xiaomin Yu (Beijiing Normal University) investigates the governance of social enterprises in China with a particular focus on autonomy and democracy. Receiving papers studying social enterprise in China is very pleasing due to our limited knowledge of this emerging organizational form in the Chinese context. Also this builds on previous ground breaking work done by this journal with the previous special issue guest edited by Professor Jacques Defourny on Social Enterprise in Eastern Asia (Vol. 7 Issue 1, 2011).
The second paper by Juan Carolos Perez de Mendiquier Castresana from the University of the Basque Country looks at the role of social enterprise in the development agenda and takes a critical look on whether this is a new phenomenon or whether this is just a revival of old private sector initiatives. Our third paper by Sandy Whitelaw and Carol Hill from the University of Glasgow researches the role of social enterprise in delivering services for elderly people in rural communities in a number of European states. This paper outlines the tensions and challenges of service delivery in this context.
The fourth paper in this issue by both Nina Langen and Lucie Adenaeuer (Institute for Food and Resource Economics) unpacks the perceptions of consumers in Germany of what happens to the Fairtrade premium paid to producers in the Fairtrade system. Our final paper by Dave Wilson (Community, Adults and Health Services) and Michael Bull (Manchester Metropolitan University Business School) identifies the complexities of carrying out a social return on investment (SROI) audit from the local authorities perspective.
The Social Enterprise Journal also supported and track chaired at both the fourth EMES conference at the University of Liege and the fifth International Social Innovation Research Conference 2-4 September 2013 at Said Business School, University of Oxford. We look forward to article submissions from both these conferences.
Bob Doherty
References
Stewart, A. and Cotton, J. (2012), “Making sense of entrepreneurship journals: journal ranking policies, International Journal of Entrepreneurship Behaviour and Research, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 303–323