Kam‐Tong Chan, Yu‐Yuan Kuan and Shu‐Twu Wang
On the basis of a survey conducted in 2010,the purpose of this paper is to discuss the latest developments of social enterprises in Hong Kong and Taiwan by analysing the typology…
Abstract
Purpose
On the basis of a survey conducted in 2010,the purpose of this paper is to discuss the latest developments of social enterprises in Hong Kong and Taiwan by analysing the typology and nature of social enterprises in these two regions, their operating context, and their perceived social impacts. The institutional context and governmental policies appear to have had a great influence on the development of social enterprise in both these Chinese communities.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through a survey conducted in both Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2010. A total of 116 completed questionnaires (return rate: 27.2 per cent) in Taiwan and 45 completed questionnaires (return rate 53.0 per cent) in Hong Kong were received.
Findings
Social enterprises in Hong Kong and Taiwan are in a “growth stage”, and they are becoming more diversified in both regions. Solving the problem of unemployment and alleviating poverty appear to be two major reasons pursued by NPOs when they set up a social enterprise. In addition, the analysis also revealed that the significance of social enterprises for helping marginal groups is increasingly recognised and that self‐reliance is very much emphasised in both regions. Beside these similarities, there are also great differences between social enterprises in the two regions, be it in terms of respective importance, institutional context, marketing strategies or government policies.
Originality/value
By tracking the growth and development of social enterprises in Hong Kong and Taiwan from 2006 to 2010, this paper attempts to analyse the similarities and diversities of social enterprises in these two Chinese communities. It also attempts to shed light on the impacts of the institutional context and the governmental policies on shaping the future development of social enterprises.
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Jacques Defourny and Shin‐Yang Kim
This paper aims to compare profiles of social enterprises as they are emerging in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and to highlight common features across countries…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to compare profiles of social enterprises as they are emerging in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and to highlight common features across countries allowing the identification of (partly) East‐Asian‐specific model(s) of social enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper first examines the socio‐economic contexts in which new public policies and new NPOs' initiatives were launched to offer innovative solutions to current challenges, especially unemployment. Interactions between Eastern Asia and Western regions (EU, USA) are also analysed as to experiments and conceptions of social enterprise. In order to identify major convergences and divergences across countries in Eastern Asia, we rely on country studies presented in this issue as well as on a broad literature, related more specifically to the development and roles of NPOs and co‐operatives in this region.
Findings
Five major models of social enterprise with specific dynamics can be identified in Eastern Asia. State influence and driving forces linked to public policies make these models rather different from the typical US social enterprise; as for the role of civil society, it seems weaker than in Western contexts but is growing significantly. Co‐operative movements also play a significant role in shaping some social enterprise models. Finally, two conditions identified as critical for the development of social economy organisations – a “condition of necessity” and a “condition of shared destiny” – seem to be valid in Eastern Asia as well, provided they are properly reinterpreted.
Research limitations/implications
As in other regions, the concept of social enterprise itself only begins to be used in Eastern Asia, and no specific legislation deals explicitly with social enterprise as such, except in South Korea. So the main challenge was to identify all categories of initiatives which can be described as part of the new “social enterprise phenomenon”. The understanding of the latter may evolve over time and vary across countries.
Originality/value
The present analysis, just like the other four papers in this issue, is a result of a joint research project of the EMES European Research Network and East‐Asian researchers. Country studies were conducted along common broad guidelines, and they were discussed and revised at various stages, which insured a fairly good level of comparability. Moreover, this seems to be the first systematic comparative analysis on social enterprise involving all industrialised countries in Eastern Asia.
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This paper seeks to address emerging practices of social enterprises (SEs) in China by exploring the institutional context, organisational features and legislative framework of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to address emerging practices of social enterprises (SEs) in China by exploring the institutional context, organisational features and legislative framework of this new phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on data drawn from secondary sources (laws and regulations, forum transcripts and news reports) and primary evidence (in‐depth study of six SE cases).
Findings
The various kinds of SEs are highly diversified in terms of social mission, organisational nature, legal form, and operational pattern; the institutional context is underdeveloped, providing growing but still limited financial, intellectual, technical, and human resources; although it allows increasing space for diversified development dynamics of SEs, the legislative system regulating SEs is still flawed in several vital ways.
Research limitations/implications
This paper relies heavily on qualitative research methods to make a preliminary assessment of the development of China's SEs. Neither primary nor secondary data sources collected for this paper can be used to draw any general conclusion of statistical significance.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on the overall landscape of the recent development of SEs in China, providing a descriptive and normative foundation for cross‐country comparative studies and quantitative, explanatory analysis.
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Rosario Laratta, Sachiko Nakagawa and Masanari Sakurai
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the emergence of social enterprise in Japan by looking at the predominant types of social enterprise in the country, their industries and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the emergence of social enterprise in Japan by looking at the predominant types of social enterprise in the country, their industries and target groups, their challenges and strength.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts an analytical approach, building on previous work; it is grounded on the social construction theory, which has the advantage of apprehending social phenomena from different viewpoints.
Findings
The study identifies three different conceptual approaches to explain the emergence of social enterprise in Japan. It then demonstrates that there exists a link between the approaches identified and the emerging social enterprise types in the country. Furthermore, it discusses the strategies used by those emerging social enterprise types in choosing their particular legal forms (in the absence of a specific legal form for social enterprise in Japan) and shows how this choice is normally determined by the constraints associated with those organisational forms. From this perspective, the paper outlines the major contemporary issues affecting social enterprises in Japan and focuses on two key challenges: the systems of regulation and the financial viability. In discussing the financial challenge it presents the dual attitude of the Japanese government towards the development of the social enterprise sector.
Originality/value
This paper builds up the theoretical foundations for the understanding of the social enterprise sector in Japan and it will stimulate further researches on the future development of the sector.
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This paper aims to deal with the history and main features of social enterprises in South Korea, where a specific legal framework was enacted in 2006.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to deal with the history and main features of social enterprises in South Korea, where a specific legal framework was enacted in 2006.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis emphasises an economic sociological approach mixing economic considerations, political features and social aspects. The mobilised information comes from previous works realised by the authors on that topic as well as from updated statistics and data about policies, laws and regulations.
Findings
The study underlines that the emergence of social enterprises in South Korea was rooted in civil society and citizens' movements before it became a priority on the government's agenda. The result is the co‐existence of several forms of social enterprise with distinctive features: social enterprises certified by the official label, on the one hand, and de facto social enterprises, defined as such because of their practices, goals and values, on the other hand. Such a situation generates a growing tension between the priorities and values emphasised by the political sphere and by the civil society.
Research limitations/implications
Social enterprise is an emerging field of interest and a recent phenomenon, constantly in progress; consequently, systematic data on the field are still lacking, and researchers do not have enough hindsight to learn definitive lessons and draw broad conclusions of statistical significance.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on a phenomenon that is multi‐dimensional and is rapidly evolving. It provides a better comprehension of South Korean political choices and socio‐economic changes and can help to anticipate future evolutions and to shape related policies to deal with work integration and the promotion of welfare‐mix in the field of social services provision. It also brings information and learning for cross‐country comparative studies.
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The purpose of this paper is to review the development and impact of the Social Enterprise Journal (SEJ) from its inception in 2005 until present day.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the development and impact of the Social Enterprise Journal (SEJ) from its inception in 2005 until present day.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses the thematic content of SEJ and its impact data from 2005 until 2017.
Findings
SEJ has broken new ground in the study of social enterprise (SE). It was the first journal back in 2005 to commence the exploration of this field and since has been the first to publish works on defining SE, their performance management, critical perspectives plus international differences. The paper shows that in the early years, SEJ was dominated by conceptual work aiming to understand SE plus their governance and performance management, which was mainly based on UK descriptive case studies and uncritical. By 2010, SEJ became established internationally with various issues being 100 per cent dominated by international aspects of SE. Recent more critical work has also enabled a process of “myth busting” in the SE field. This paper also shows the growth of SEJ in downloads and citations.
Practical implications
The paper demonstrates the important role SEJ has played in both improving practice and informing policy.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to review the development and impact of SEJ.
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Jia Liao, Liping Zheng and Yu Yuan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on corporate cash holdings. This paper also investigates the moderating effects…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on corporate cash holdings. This paper also investigates the moderating effects of ownership type and institutional environment between CER and corporate cash holdings.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the data of the most polluting listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange markets over the period 2010–2019. CER data from Hexun.com (a professional CSR evaluation system) are used to measure CER performance. Two proxies are used to measure the level of cash holdings simultaneously, where CASH1 is calculated as the ratio of cash and cash equivalents to total assets, and CASH2 is calculated as the ratio of cash and cash equivalents to net assets (total assets minus cash and cash equivalents). Finally, multiple regression analysis is applied to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that environmentally responsible companies hold substantially less cash, and the result is statistically significant and robust even after using firm fixed effects and applying alternative measures of cash holdings or alleviating potential endogeneity. In addition, the results of cross-sectional tests show that the negative relation between CER and corporate cash holdings is concentrated among non-state-owned enterprises, and firms in provinces with more developed institutions. Furthermore, the result of the analysis of the economic consequence shows CER significantly increases the value of cash holdings.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses on China's institutional context, which limits the generalizability of the findings to other countries. However, the objective of this research can be studied in other institutional settings, so the above limitations provide a springboard for further research. Furthermore, the environmental protection investment, green technology innovation, and even pollutant discharge of companies can also be important indicators to measure the performance of firms in fulfilling their environmental responsibilities, which can be considered in future research.
Practical implications
The findings of this study may help company management in China to establish a correct view of environmental responsibility to achieve corporate value creation and corporate sustainability. And our research can also provide the policy reference value for the Chinese government to further improve environmental protection policies and systems, guide enterprises to conduct green production to realize the country's vision of an environmentally friendly society.
Originality/value
Based on the current background that countries in the world advocate the development of a green economy, this is the first study to examine the impacts of the environmental responsibility of the most polluting companies on corporate cash holdings and the value of cash holdings in the context of China, an emerging market.
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The Communist revolution in China has led to the appearance in this country of increasing numbers of Chinese books in Russian translation. The Chinese names in Cyrillic…
Abstract
The Communist revolution in China has led to the appearance in this country of increasing numbers of Chinese books in Russian translation. The Chinese names in Cyrillic transcription have presented many librarians and students with a new problem, that of identifying the Cyrillic form of a name with the customary Wade‐Giles transcription. The average cataloguer, the first to meet the problem, has two obvious lines of action, and neither is satisfactory. He can save up the names until he has a chance to consult an expert in Chinese. Apart altogether from the delay, the expert, confronted with a few isolated names, might simply reply that he could do nothing without the Chinese characters, and it is only rarely that Soviet books supply them. Alternatively, he can transliterate the Cyrillic letters according to the system in use in his library and leave the matter there for fear of making bad worse. As long as the writers are not well known, he may feel only faintly uneasy; but the appearance of Chzhou Ėn‐lai (or Čžou En‐laj) upsets his equanimity. Obviously this must be entered under Chou; and we must have Mao Tse‐tung and not Mao Tsze‐dun, Ch'en Po‐ta and not Chėn' Bo‐da. But what happens when we have another . . . We can hardly write Ch'en unless we know how to represent the remaining elements in the name; yet we are loth to write Ch'en in one name and Chėn' in another.