To study the ways in which the people involve in social enterprises make sense out of what they are trying to do.
Abstract
Purpose
To study the ways in which the people involve in social enterprises make sense out of what they are trying to do.
Design/methodology/approach
The study focused on the issues and concerns of participants in a social enterprise network in Bradford, UK, where the network includes both social enterprises and agencies offering them support. Explains that the study aimed to examine the relationship between the development of social enterprise and organizational identity, processes and problems to determine what shared meanings and sense of shared identity are used by participants to make sense of social enterprise, how these are related to actions and projects within the social enterprise sector, and whether there is network integrity in responding and adapting to changes. Reports on a case study involving exploratory semi‐structured interviews, between November 2005 and February 2006, with 11 key actors involved in social enterprise networks in Bradford, all of which were involved in either delivering services to the community or from agencies tasked with supporting these groups.
Findings
Five key themes emerged from the interviews: identifying as a social entrepreneur; organizational identity; common language; growth; and networking. Concludes that the factors involved in the way that actors in social enterprises make sense of their activities include: identity, where most organizations did not identify a heroic leader nor would they choose to become social entrepreneurs; lack of a common metaphor; staying small; and fragmentation.
Originality/value
Provides a useful starting point from which to explore the problems faced by social enterprise organizations.
Details
Keywords
The paper aims to present case studies to uncover the reflections of key participants in a social enterprise network in West Yorkshire. It considers how they learn from failure…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to present case studies to uncover the reflections of key participants in a social enterprise network in West Yorkshire. It considers how they learn from failure and how they make sense of the variety of messages about, and approaches to, social enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is based upon sense making in organisations. The paper builds upon the concept of ambiguity as well as Sydow's framework of inter‐organisational trust. Participant drawings of these ideas were used to enhance data generated from face to face interviews.
Findings
The paper reviews actors' experiences of failure in projects to explore the relationships of those active in social enterprises and support agencies. From this perspective, uncertainty, ambiguity and unexpected insights into mistrust between organisations were identified as underlying themes.
Research limitations/implications
The concepts of uncertainty, ambiguity, trust and mistrust offer rich ways of perceiving the problems faced by social enterprises. They provide a framework to aid discussions of social enterprise development between academics and practitioners. These concepts may go towards improving understanding in resolving problems and be beneficial in formulating policies and practices that improve service delivery within communities.
Originality/value
Little research looks at lessons learnt from failure and associated issues of ambiguity and trust between social enterprises at a network level. If smaller social enterprises are going to work together in co‐ordinated activity to deliver social projects and to offer economies of scale in contract delivery, trust will be essential. This paper suggests that further research in this area is needed to consider the quality of relationships being nurtured.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Details
Keywords
Mike Bull, Rory Ridley‐Duff, Doug Foster and Pam Seanor
In popular culture, ethics and morality are topical, heightened by recent attention to the banking industry and pay awards, monopoly capitalism, global warming and sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
In popular culture, ethics and morality are topical, heightened by recent attention to the banking industry and pay awards, monopoly capitalism, global warming and sustainability. Yet, surprisingly, little attention is given to these in the narrative of the conceptualisation of social enterprise or social entrepreneurship – nor in the academic research on the sector. Current conceptualisations of social enterprise fail to fully satisfy the spirit of the movement which advances a narrative that social enterprises: are more like businesses than voluntary organisations; are more entrepreneurial than public service delivery; use business models but are not just in it for the money. A focus on the economic implies a business model where deep tensions lie. A focus on social capital offers a different frame of reference, yet both these conceptualisations fail to fully identify the phenomenon that is social enterprise. The objective of this paper is to fill that gap. Ethical capital is offered here as an alternative and unrecognised conceptualisation in the field of social enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is exploratory in nature – a tentative piece of theorising that brings together the authors' perspectives on ethical capital to offer a new frame of reference on social enterprise. It sets out to investigate some of the issues in order to provoke further research.
Findings
It is argued in the paper that the current ideology of the neo‐classical economic paradigm pursues interests towards the self and towards the erosion of the moral basis of association. The outcome leaves society with a problem of low ethical virtue. The implications of this paper are that social enterprises maximise ethical virtue beyond any other form of organisation and as such hold great value beyond their missions and values.
Research limitations/implications
This paper starts the process of intellectual debate about the notion of ethical capital in social enterprises. The conclusions of this paper outline further research questions that need to be addressed in order to fully develop this concept.
Originality/value
This paper offers great value in the understanding of social enterprise through fresh insight into its conceptualisation. A critical perspective is adopted towards the current literature. This paper sheds new light on an understanding of the sector, providing practitioners, business support agencies and academics alike with a conceptualisation that has not been explored before.
Details
Keywords
Pam Seanor, Mike Bull, Sue Baines and Rory Ridley‐Duff
In response to calls to critically analyse and conceptually advance social enterprise, the purpose of this paper is to examine narratives and models representing a spectrum of…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to calls to critically analyse and conceptually advance social enterprise, the purpose of this paper is to examine narratives and models representing a spectrum of social enterprise from the “social” to the “economic”. The paper tests these against the experience of practitioners who were either employees in social organisations or support workers tasked with promoting social enterprise. This is timely against a background of imperatives from central governments for social organisations to compete for the delivery of public services and become more “entrepreneurial”.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports qualitative research in which participants were invited to draw lines and arrows onto spectrum models to illustrate the social and economic contexts they perceived themselves to be working within. The data comprise interviews and drawings, combined with verbal descriptions of the drawings and reflections on their significance.
Findings
The paper shows how participants interpreted the “social” and “economic” of social enterprise in pictures and words. The research suggests that social enterprise can not be told as a single narrative but as a set of little stories showing oscillations, contradictions and paradox.
Research limitations/implications
Understanding of social enterprise can be much improved by giving greater recognition to ambiguities and compromises within the lived experience of contemporary practice.
Originality/value
The article offers new reflection on widely used images that represent social enterprise along a dichotomous, polar spectrum from social to economic.
Details
Keywords
Pam Seanor, Michael Bull, Susan Baines and Martin Purcell
The purpose of this paper is to offer new reflection upon the contested interaction of social enterprises with the public sector. It does this by fore fronting the notions of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer new reflection upon the contested interaction of social enterprises with the public sector. It does this by fore fronting the notions of boundaries, boundary work and boundary objects.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports qualitative research with social enterprise practitioners (from social enterprises and support agencies) in the north of England. Accounts elicited through interviews are combined with visual data in the form of pencil drawings made by practitioners when the authors invited them to respond to and rework diagrammatic models from the literature about the social and economic dimensions of social enterprise.
Findings
Participants explained in words and images how normative images of social enterprise depicting linear and static boundaries inadequately represent the complexity of ideas and interactions in their world. Rather, they perceived an iterative process of crossing and re-crossing boundaries, with identities and practices which appeared to shift over time in relation to different priorities.
Research limitations/implications
Through participant generated visual data in which social enterprise practitioners literally redrew models from the literature, the paper open space to show movement, transgression and change.
Originality/value
This paper is timely as social enterprises are becoming increasingly prominent in the welfare mix. The authors make novel use of conversations and drawings in order to better understand the dynamic and everyday practices of social enterprise within public services. In doing this, the authors also potentially contribute to richer methodological resources for researching the movement of services between sectors.
Details
Keywords
This paper seeks to examine the discourses that influence policy and practice in social enterprises. In institutional circles, arguments are shaped by the desire to protect assets…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the discourses that influence policy and practice in social enterprises. In institutional circles, arguments are shaped by the desire to protect assets for the community, while entrepreneurial discourses favour a mixture of investment sources, surplus sharing and inclusive systems of governance. A critique is outlined that challenges policy‐makers and academics to move beyond the heated debate on “business‐like” activity through a deeper understanding of the social relations entered into (and created by) different social entrepreneurial activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is wholly theoretical. First, contradictions are exposed through a review of practitioner and scholarly literature. Thereafter, empirically grounded studies are used to develop a theoretical model that accommodates and accounts for diverse practices.
Findings
A broader perspective, that views human behaviour as a product of, and support system for, our socio‐sexual choices, is deployed to extend understanding of social capital. By integrating this into governance theory, workplaces come to be seen as complex centres of community‐building, replete with economic and social goals. The concept of “social rationality” is elaborated as an alternative way to understand the legitimacy of social entrepreneurial activity and management practice.
Originality/value
The paper concludes by developing a framework and typology that theorises social enterprise as a heterogeneous business movement. Each form of social enterprise integrates socially rational thinking into its policies and practices. This suggests a different educational agenda for social entrepreneurs oriented towards the equitable distribution, and not accumulation, of social and economic capital.