Rural social enterprise – Evidence to date, and a research agenda

1) There is still know little about the relationship between patterns of social enterprise development and sustainability and location characteristics, including notions of community identity and capacity. This is true on both a micro scale (in-depth study of small numbers of community cases) and larger scale in which seeking to map rural social enterprise development across regions, would be useful.
2) Business models in relation to location or rural outcomes and impacts. We do not know if rural social enterprises are integrated into diverse local economies and social systems, or operate in a parallel ‘more social, less commercial’ system.
3) Impact of social enterprise as a model on the development and sustainability of mainstream rural business and entrepreneurship. Could the culture of social enterprise crowd out the idea of mainstream commercialism, making it seem that low or no profit is really the only viable rural option? What happens to those that train or gain skills in rural social enterprises – do they move to other work; and if so, what,where and how?
4) There is considerable scope to work more quantitatively and spatially to understand what types of rural social enterprises survive and thrive, their industry sectors and the extent to which their leaders network and learn from each other.