What Is a Social Enterprise? Revising Old Concepts and Interviewing Social Entrepreneurs

ABSTRACT

The concept of social enterprise (SE) has been developed by an emerging and collective effort of scholars over the world. However, a comprehensive meaning of ‘SE,’ which embeds traditional knowledge of organizational management has potential to be explored further. Due to the relevance of ‘SE’ in the contemporary society, new conceptual and practical insights are desirable. This study proposes to shed light on building up a definition for ‘SE’ that is inspired by existing definitions of organization and ‘SE’ and rely on real-world evidence. Literature review and comprehensive interviews with social entrepreneurs were conducted. Data analysis defines ‘SEs’ as an autonomous organization managed in a participative way and created by and for the community, with a relatively identifiable boundary, that strives to generate social wealth, and for this, produces goods and/or services that guarantee its financial viability, consequently, its continuity. Its integration into its environment generates consequences guided by social, economic, and environmental goals.

KEYWORDS:

• Social enterprise
• organizational theory
• definition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Iraci de Souza João is an assistant professor of management and advisor of Master on Technologic Innovation at Institute of Science and Technology (ICT) at Federal University of São Paulo. She holds a PhD in Management of Organizations from University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil with an internship at Research Centre on Economics and Society (CIES) – Barcelona University, Spain. Her research interests encompass social enterprise and social innovation.

Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour has served as the director of the University of Stirling’s MSc in Strategic Sustainable Business. His research topics are managing for sustainable development and sustainability in emerging economies. His academic experience has been developed in a number of higher education institutions in Brazil, Japan, England, and in Scotland. He has published in leading journals in sustainability, such as Journal of Cleaner Production, Business Strategy and the Environment, Journal of Business Ethics, and others.

Simone Galina is a professor of Innovation, Internationalization and Operations Management at the School of Economics, Business and Accountancy of Ribeirão Preto at University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. She holds a PhD in Engineering from Polytechnic School/USP with an internship at Lund University, Sweden. She is a teacher and advisor for Master and Doctorate students at the Graduate Program in Management of Organizations. She leads the Group of Studies on Innovation and Internationalization at USP and her main areas of expertise are innovation management, R&D internationalization, and international operations.