What are the characteristics of social enterprises? What are the future prospects for social enterprises? What do social enterprises contribute?

Analyzing social enterprises in fifteen different countries, The Emergence of Social Enterprise seeks to answer these important questions while investigating the remarkable growth in the 'third sector'.

Using the social enterprises as case-studies, theory and practice is combined in a compelling argument to support the concept of an 'emergence' of social enterprise. Written by leading academics, in an accessible yet...

This book offers a rethinking of the burgeoning research on not-for-profit organizations and socially responsible economics. Adopting a comparative approach, the chapters explore and reinterpret the impact of social enterprises on the provision of general-interest services, work integration, microfinance, and fair trade, and show how these enterprises form the hub of an emerging economy of social responsibility. The book provides a new interpretation of social enterprises as entrepreneurial organizations that pursue social objectives and are successful due to the non-self-seeking motives of...

The Oxford Handbook of Mutuals and Co-Owned Business investigates all types of 'member owned' organizations, whether consumer co-operatives, agricultural and producer co-operatives, worker co-operatives, mutual building societies, friendly societies, credit unions, solidarity organizations, mutual insurance companies, or employee-owned companies. Such organizations can be owned by their consumers, the producers, or the employees - whether through single-stakeholder or multi-stakeholder ownership.

This complex set of organizations is named differently across countries: from...