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Social Enterprise

What lies behind the label?

Simon Teasdale and Fergus Lyon

Social Enterprise

• ‘A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives, whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profits for shareholders’ (DTI, 2002).

Making sense of social enterprise discourses

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic Social

Co-opsCommunityEnterprise

SocialBusiness

Earnedincome

Phenomenal growth in the UK?

2003 2004 2005 2008 2009 20100

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

Number of social enterprises according to gov-ernment sponsored surveys

No of social enterprises

Explaining the ‘phenomenal growth’ of social enterprise

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic SocialECOTEC, 2003:

5,300 social enterprises

Explaining the ‘phenomenal growth’ of social enterprise

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic SocialIFF Research, 2005:15,000 social enterprises

Explaining the ‘phenomenal growth’ of social enterprise

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic Social

ASBS Surveys, 2005-2008:

62,000 social enterprises

ASBS Surveys, 2005-2008

all social enterprises:220,000

Explaining the ‘phenomenal growth’ of social enterprise

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic Social

Explaining the ‘phenomenal growth’ of social enterprise

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic SocialNSTSO, 2008-09:

8,507 social enterprises

Policy confusion

• Social Enterprise Mark• Social enterprise finance• Social Enterprise Investment Fund• Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social

Value) Bill

Practitioner confusion

• Social enterprise as outsiders• Social enterprise as missing link• Social enterprise as panacea

Policy opportunitiesSocial enterprises demonstrate ‘that social and environmental responsibility can be combined with financial success. They are innovative; entrepreneurial; concerned with aligning the needs of the individual with those of society; and social justice is their guiding principle. They offer joined-up, personalised services by...making the connections for service users...enabling users to make informed choices. They enable access to public services by...taking the service to the citizen, empowering dispersed communities to work together. They improve outcomes for those “hardest to help” by...developing innovative solutions...sharing the problem and the solution. They influence individual choices by...using role models within the community...giving people a stake in protecting their future.’

Practitioner opportunities

Collective

Hierarchical

Economic SocialGlobal

Theatre Productions

Local Arts

National Arts Refugee Support Network

Community Group Network

Conclusions• Social enterprise means different things to different people

across different contexts and at different points in time.

• Its contested nature leads to wide variation in estimating the

number of social enterprises, and to policy confusion.

• This conceptual confusion provides opportunities for

organisations and policy makers to present strategic impressions

to different audiences to achieve different goals.

• So where next for social enterprise under the coalition

government?

Social enterprise in the coalition• Any willing provider• Payment by results• Right to bid to run local services• Public sector employee spin outs • Train community organisers• Big Society Bank• A focus on scaling up existing activity• Where will support come from?

Where might growth come from?• Encouraging new start ups• Movement from the voluntary sector• Growth of existing enterprises• Community Asset Transfer• Transfers from public sector• But....– Who wants to grow ?– Who are the social entrepreneurs?– How is innovation encouraged?

Scale and control

A - Growth within the organisation

Increasing potential scale of impact of innovations

Decreasing control over how innovations are implemented

B- Scaling through franchises and licensing

C- Open access sharing and disseminating good practice

Spin outs and social enterprise• Types of spin outs and motivations to leave

the public sector• Are they innovative?• What do different people mean by

innovation?• What are the processes of innovation? • How are they diversifying?• How are they growing or not growing?• How are they assessing their social impact?

Social Enterprise Finance• Who is going for loan finance?• What makes a minority of SEs able to seek out

and use development finance – local disembedding? – New generation of entrepreneurs?

• How best to support investment intermediaries? • Can new forms of funding make a significant

difference – ‘crowdfunding’, social impact bonds? • How can investors judge social impact?

Social impact

• Why is there interest in social impact ?• How is social impact measurement being

used?• Is it for learning or for marketing? • What is being measured?• How to research wellbeing?• How are organisations scaling up their social

impact?

For discussion• Does it matter that there is no clear definition

of social enterprise?• Where is growth coming from, and is it always

desirable?• How will coalition policies on spin-outs shape

the social enterprise sector?• What information do social investors require?• Will social enterprises measure their impact

and can we trust the results?