This article explores the European Parliament's July 2018 non-legislative resolution proposing to the European Commission a directive for facilitating social enterprise companies’ cross-border activities. The proposal is first situated within the context of the social economy and how the sector has grown in importance to European integration. The proposal and the European Commission's response are then examined. Although the European Commission was not convinced that Member States would be amenable to the proposal, a consensus may already exist that is sufficient to garner their support. Even if this prediction is wrong, however, it is argued that there are reasons to surmise that the proposal will likely be reassessed and ultimately successful at some future point. Finally, the proposal is viewed with a reflexive harmonisation lens. Through the analysis, regulatory issues are identified, and a solution is then suggested.

In recent years ‘social enterprises’ have become important partners in the delivery of key public services such as healthcare. However, little is known about how healthcare social enterprises contribute to public service provision in the health sector. We analyzed 172 social enterprises from four continents involved in healthcare to assess the types of interventions, processes, and roles they play responding to rapidly evolving healthcare systems. We found that they are engaged broadly in three dimensions of health service provision: improving access to health services; improving the quality of health services; and building public health capacity. We contribute to social policy theory by enhancing understanding of the micro-level interventions of social enterprises in the healthcare sector and articulating new dimensions of NPG that include co-innovation, co-lobbying, and co-integration in the context of healthcare.

In 2020, the Barunga Festival would have celebrated its 35th anniversary. In mid-June of 2021, as many as 4,000 individuals were expected to descend on an aboriginal community of 300 residents located 400 km south of Darwin. This case describes the challenge to the Festival's promoters as they seek to sustain peak socio-economic impact in their role as community development change agents in a diverse and dynamic environment. The reader is tasked with clarifying goals, deciding what is at stake, and setting a course of action to realize those objectives.

Social enterprises (SEs) primarily aim to create social value, that is, to generate benefits or reduce costs for society, while maintaining financial sustainability. Owing to their unique operating conditions and organizational characteristics, SEs face more severe resource challenges than their commercial counterparts. These challenges are exacerbated for SEs operating in emerging economies with complex social contexts. Overcoming these resource constraints and social challenges is vital for SEs to achieve their mission. Using an inductive multiple case-study approach, we identify a unique bricolage solution for achieving the dual objectives of SEs. Our findings suggest that identifying locally embedded village level entrepreneurs is a bricolage activity that social entrepreneurs leverage in the resource constrained environment of emerging economies, especially for the social enterprises that are active in the villages but were founded by social entrepreneurs who are not from these villages. This article therefore contributes to both social entrepreneurship literature as well as entrepreneurial bricolage literature and has important implications for future research and practice.

Time Credits are a form of community currency based upon the reciprocal exchange of time and represent an interpretation of ‘time banking’ by a UK social enterprise, Spice. This article sets out the contribution made by research on Time Credits to the theory and practice of co-production in public services. Time Credits are intended to improve wellbeing through volunteering and ultimately increase economic participation. There is a focus on communities exhibiting high levels of deprivation within a small Cambridgeshire town (Wisbech, UK) which is geographically isolated and characterised by low-skilled, agri-food based employment opportunities that attracted high levels of inward migration from the A8 EU accession countries. In separating the rhetoric from the reality of co-production, the research aims to shed some light upon the extent to which such initiatives can realistically engender a shift towards a more reciprocal economy in the context of an ongoing programme of fiscal austerity.

In recent years, many countries have introduced special regimes to facilitate the organisation of social enterprises. Many of these include company law rules which may either provide for a special corporate form for social enterprises, or are part of a certification scheme for such enterprises. This article analyses how these company law issues have been addressed. It focuses on the US benefit corporation, the UK Community Interest Company and the recently proposed Danish certification regime for social enterprises. An analysis is made of how the different systems aim to find the right balance between flexible rules that are sufficiently attractive to entrepreneurs and (social) investors, and rules which ensure that the designation of ‘social enterprise’ is credible. It is pointed out that the three systems balance these requirements quite differently, and the advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. One of the key elements in the governing of social enterprises is the regulation of how assets can be transferred from these enterprises. It is concluded that a certification scheme seems preferable to a new corporate form, and several recommendations are made as to how to find a system that is more credible than the US solution and more flexible than the UK and Danish solutions.

Over the past few years there has been a growing interest on the part of the scientific community (and, more recently, of policymakers) in the concept of social innovation. The notion of social innovation is particularly appealing in light of the difficulties facing traditional welfare systems and, more broadly, a development model that is finding it increasingly difficult to meet the growing and diversified needs of society. However, the uses and definitions of the concept are so disparate that it is becoming increasingly difficult to assess whether social innovation is in fact a helpful construct or just another fad that will soon be forgotten. This article focuses in particular on the usefulness of the concept of social innovation for the purposes of policy development. Therefore, the goal is not to find the ‘true’ definition of social innovation. Rather, it is to search for a useful framework on which to build sound policies that could tackle the complex social issues that have caused scholars and practitioners to pay attention to social innovation in the first place.

In a world filled with poverty, environmental degradation, and moral injustice, social enterprises offer a ray of hope. These organizations seek to achieve social missions through business ventures. Yet social missions and business ventures are associated with divergent goals, values, norms, and identities. Attending to them simultaneously creates tensions, competing demands, and ethical dilemmas. Effectively understanding social enterprises therefore depends on insight into the nature and management of these tensions. While existing research recognizes tensions between social missions and business ventures, we lack any systematic analysis. Our paper addresses this issue. We first categorize the types of tensions that arise between social missions and business ventures, emphasizing their prevalence and variety. We then explore how four different organizational theories offer insight into these tensions, and we develop an agenda for future research. We end by arguing that a focus on social-business tensions not only expands insight into social enterprises, but also provides an opportunity for research on social enterprises to inform traditional organizational theories. Taken together, our analysis of tensions in social enterprises integrates and seeks to energize research on this expanding phenomenon.