scholarly journals Workers or Investors? Investigating the Reciprocity Aspects among Greek Social Enterprises Members

Author(s):  
Achilleas Kontogeorgos ◽  
Fotios Chatzitheodoridis

In Europe 160 million people are members of social economy enterprises and mutual societies. Members that work at social enterprises usually are bound with an employee relationship with their organization; on the other hand participating in a social enterprise could be their only chance to find a job, especially for economies that face a long-term recession such as the Greek economy. Social enterprises and entrepreneurs invest in reciprocity which represents that positive actions will inspire reciprocal positive actions. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of reciprocity on members’ decision either to invest in social enterprises or to work for them acquiring in both cases the necessary shares. For this reason, a survey was conducted among Greek members of social enterprises listed in the Greek Social enterprises directory, to investigate their aspects about reciprocity and if these aspects affect their decision to work in a social enterprise or support financially them. The survey process returned 142 fully completed questionnaires. The analysis identified a sub group (5 over 27 items) of the questions used to measure reciprocity that can be used to classify participants into shareholders - members (investors) and shareholders - workers in social enterprises. It is worth mentioning that sex or other demographic characteristics of the respondents do not affect this classification while there are only aspects of positive reciprocity that have either positive or negative effect on the possibility to work in social enterprises. Social entrepreneurs and the Greek state could use these findings in order to direct and manage their expansion efforts.

Author(s):  
Adriana Neguț

During recent years we have witnessed a growing interest in Romania for social economy, as a result of the increasing interest of EU towards the field and the financing lines as SOP HRD 2007-2013, and as well for developing a legal framework on social economy. In Romania, many of the social economy organizations are dependent on these sources of funding, which is a major obstacle to long term sustainability of the sector. In this context, the paper aims to analyse the strategies of social enterprises established under the Priority Axis 6 of SOP HRD to ensure sustainability, on the assumption that once the funding ends they face significant risks and adopt different strategies in order to develop. The sustainability of social enterprises will be explored from three perspectives: (1) financial, seeking to identify the strategies of social enterprises to attract new funding, (2) in terms of consistency of the social enterprise with its initial objectives and principles and (3) from the point of view of the social enterprises' impact on vulnerable groups and the community. The analysis will be based on data from sociological researches on social economy entities in Romania, carried out between 2009 and 2014.


Author(s):  
Daniel B. Cornfield

This chapter considers the pathways to becoming an artistic social entrepreneur. Previous research on social entrepreneurs has emphasized the impact of one's stock of human, social, and cultural capital on one's mobilization of requisite resources for launching and sustaining a social enterprise. Less sociological attention has been given to the influence of career-biographical factors, such as family, religion, education, and pivotal career turning points that may inspire and compel one to become a social entrepreneur and to envision and shape one's social enterprise, let alone an artistic social enterprise. The profiles of four artistic social entrepreneurs in this chapter illustrate how their strategic and risk orientations and career pathways shape the social enterprises they envision and influence their assumption and enactment of their roles as artist activists.


Author(s):  
Anja Herrmann-Fankhänel

Socially sustainable development can be driven by individuals, entrepreneurs, growing start-ups, and international companies. As social entrepreneurs, people opt for a form of organization that contributes to social improvement through entrepreneurial means. The question is: How do they do it? The resource dependence approach (RDA) assumes that all decisions and activities of a (social) enterprise are based on information about its environment. Therefore, the four key components of the social enterprise (individual, organization, social innovation, market orientation) must be appropriate. In this chapter, therefore, social enterprises are outlined as active participants and shapers of the economy and society. Since an active improvement with regard to socially sustainable development is focused by the social enterprises in Africa, a description of the social enterprise's environment is also given within the framework of topical focuses. The goal is to derive recommendations about action for social enterprises to achieve their goals.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Remy Rwamigabo

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the context, the concept and the main types of social enterprises in Rwanda, and to present its main institutional and contextual trajectories. Design/methodology/approachThe author carried out a literature review and interviews. Six categories were identified; each one is illustrated by one emblematic case. FindingsThe paper presents the evolution of economically oriented social organizations in Rwanda, mostly under the form of cooperatives and NGOs and with inspiration from traditional forms of mutual help. The context of emergence of social enterprise in Rwanda was shaped, among other factors, by Anglo-Saxon influence. Other factors include notably the aftermath of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, the current governance prevailing in the country and the current entrepreneurships trends. The paper also underlines the absence of research on the subject in Rwanda. Six categories of social enterprises in Rwanda and their main features have been identified and analyzed, namely, NGOs, cooperatives, informal organizations, social entrepreneurs, public/private partnerships and companies carrying out social activities. Finally, the paper analyzes the institutional and contextual trajectories of social enterprise in Rwanda. Originality/valueThe paper explores and provides insights into the specificities and the current trends of social enterprise in Rwanda with a view to fostering further analysis for several research avenues.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Zoha A. Karmali ◽  
Meena Galliara ◽  
Manjari Srivastava

Subject area Social Entrepreneurship. Study level/applicability This case study can be used on the module on introduction to social entrepreneurship for postgraduate students specializing in Social Entrepreneurship or Social Work. Case overview This case explores the difference between social entrepreneurship and idealism. It captures the journey of Charlene Vaz and Kavita Gonsalves, two passionate young women, who formed “The Bake Collective” (TBC). Kavita and Charlene are both full-time employees, who spend their weekends and evenings running TBC and through bake sells raise funds for supporting social causes. The women have been able to get a teacher hired for differently abled children, provide water purifiers to victims of the Nepal earthquake, furnish a classroom in a school for less privileged children and provide teaching material for schools in over 400 villages in the State of Maharashtra in India. The case highlights the power of volunteering for a cause that can result in developing a social enterprise. It helps to unfold the steps undertaken to kick-start the cause as well as the risks involved in the start-up stage. It also discusses the measures that can be taken to mitigate the risks in the start-up phase and the ways by which social entrepreneurs can scale and grow their programme. Expected learning outcomes From this case, students will learn about the factors that lead to the germination of a social enterprise and identify characteristics of social entrepreneurs. They will be able to understand critical factors required to sustain start-up enterprises. The case will also enable students to explore systems and processes that need to be designed to sustain the start-up phase. Further, the case will help students to brainstorm on growth strategies for social enterprises. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.


Author(s):  
Dana Brakman Reiser ◽  
Steven A. Dean

Social Enterprise Law presents a series of audacious legal technologies designed to unleash the potential of social enterprise. Until now, the law has been viewed as an obstacle to social entrepreneurship, too inflexible to embrace for-profit businesses with a social mission at their core. Legislators have poured resources into creating hybrid corporate forms such as the benefit corporation to eliminate barriers to the creation of social enterprises. That first generation of social enterprise law has not done enough. The authors provide a framework for future legislation to do what benefit corporations have not: create durable commitments by social entrepreneurs and investors to balance financial gains and social mission by putting a speed limit on profits. They show how sophisticated investors need not wait for the advent of these legislative changes, outlining a contingent convertible debt instrument that relies instead on financial engineering to build trust between those with capital and those ready to use it to nurture a double bottom line. To allow social enterprises to harness the vast power of the crowd, they develop a tax regime that would provide crowdfunding platforms the means to screen the commitment of for-profit startups. Armed with these tools of social enterprise law 2.0 and the burgeoning metrics of measuring public benefit, entrepreneurs and investors can navigate even the turbulent waters of exit without sacrificing mission, so that a sale need not mean selling out.


2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Young Soo Park

Social-economic entities, such as village enterprises and cooperatives, have appeared in addition to social enterprises since the ‘Social Enterprise Promotion Act’ was enacted, and local governments have established ordinances to support them. However, the ordinances have not been generalised and applied as there is no specific definition of ‘Social Economy’ in the applicable parent Act - Social Enterprise Promotion Act. This research aims to revitalise the social economy in local cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do. Thus, the paper has conducted a comparative analysis of the characteristics of the local authorities’ ordinances. The study has identified complex problems of the local ordinances and suggests potential directions for further developments for the ‘Social Economy Ordinances’. The results of the exploration are as follows. Firstly, 27 out of 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi-do have established and implemented the ‘Social Economy Ordinances’; however, most of them have not specified ‘parent laws’ of the ordinances. Secondly, although, the definitions of ‘Social Economy Ordinances’ are varied in individual local governments in Gyeonggi-do, they have been using similar keywords. Thirdly, the target scopes of the policies under the current ‘Social Economy Ordinances’ operated by local authorities are inconsistent and incoherent in terms of the system of norm and effectiveness. Thus, the ordinances are needed to be collectively reorganised and modified when the Basic Act on Social Economy are enacted. Although the scopes of support are proper in terms of the system of effectiveness, it is necessary to improve the post-management sections for the policy of supporting the social economy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary O’Shaughnessy ◽  
Patricia O’Hara

AbstractWhat is termed the social economy in Ireland includes charities, co-operatives, voluntary associations and non-profits. However, the label is not widely used to describe them collectively so that many organisations within the wider social economy do not identify themselves with, or even fully understand, the term. The concept of social enterprise first emerged in public policy discourse in the 1990s and, since then, has been mainly viewed as a mechanism of job creation/integration and service provision in disadvantaged communities. This perspective on social enterprise has been significantly influenced by European policy. By contrast, in Irish academic discourse, the interpretation of social enterprise is more varied due to the different influences of the US and European intellectual traditions. These variations have contributed to ambiguity about the social economy as a sector, and social enterprises as distinctive forms, and this has compromised attempts to estimate the scale and potential of the sector in Ireland to date. In 2013, as part of the policy response to the unemployment crisis of the economic recession, the Irish government commissioned an examination of the job-creation potential of social enterprise. The Forfás report offered a new official definition of social enterprise, characterised by many of the features of the EMES ideal type. Furthermore, the description and examples of social enterprises included in the report confirmed the dominance of one model of social enterprise in Ireland – the Work Integration Social Enterprise or WISE. The objective of this paper is to discuss how social economy and social enterprise are understood in Ireland and to explain how WISEs have evolved as the dominant Irish social enterprise model to date. The influence of the US (Salamon and Anheier 1997; Dees 1998) and European/EMES academic traditions (Pestoff 1998; Borzaga and Defourny 2001; Nyssens 2006; Defourny and Nyssens 2010, 2012) and EU and national policy perspectives, since the early 1990s, on Irish academic and policy discourse is discussed in this paper. It is argued that the adoption by successive Irish governments of a labour market integration approach, to supporting the development of the Irish social economy, since the early 1990s, has shaped the sector and contributed to the emergence of one dominant social enterprise type, the WISE. Some of the characteristics and impacts of Irish WISE are then discussed together with the challenges they face.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changhwan Shin

Schumpeter argued that entrepreneurship brings about creative destruction in capitalist economies. South Korea enacted the Social Enterprise Promotion Act in 2007 to promote corporate social enterprise. However, despite government support, social enterprises in Korea are not successful, especially in social and economic performance, which is defined as the social and economic value that social enterprises should pursue. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 100 social entrepreneurs, and the structural equation model was used as the research method. The results of the analysis are as follows. Openness and innovativeness have a positive direct impact on economic as well as social performance. In addition, openness and innovativeness play a mediating role not only in social performance, but also in economic performance. This paper suggests theoretical and policy implications based on the above analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Donwe Choi ◽  
Keon-Hyung Lee ◽  
Hyungjo Hur

This study investigates the relationship between social enterprises’ social orientation and the organizational commitment of their employees. The study also examines differences in organizational commitment between Millennial social enterprise employees and social enterprise employees of earlier generations. The findings from the study indicate that a social enterprise’s pursuit of social purpose, shared decision- making, and social performance are all positively associated with the organizational commitment of its employees. Additionally, the findings suggest that, in general, Millennials have a lower level of organizational commitment to their social enterprise employer than do earlier generations. Indeed, the organizational commitment of Millennials, we find, is primarily (and significantly) influenced only by shared decision-making. These findings contribute to the literature on social enterprise as well as to the literature on organizational commitment by providing insight into unseen aspects of social enterprise management from the perspective of employees. From a practical standpoint, these findings provide social entrepreneurs and managers of social enterprises with practical guidance on how to improve their employees’ organizational commitment.


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