Details
Year: 2015
Published in: ICSEM Working Papers
Cited as: Gordon, M. (2015) “A Typology of Social Enterprise ‘Traditions’”, No. 18.
Subject
A Typology of Social Enterprise “Traditions”
Abstract
This paper considers the longstanding problem of how to define and classify social enterprise, given the great variety of social enterprise activities, organisational types, legal forms, and policy objectives. After considering various social enterprise emergence theories and three alternative classifications of social enterprise, it proposes a typology of social enterprises based on six social enterprise historical “traditions”, each representing a distinct purpose. The paper discusses each tradition in turn and identifies its basis, central values, primary beneficiaries, potential legal or organisational form(s), and primary income source(s). It then maps the traditions onto the “welfare triangle”, discusses the principles of how to classify social enterprises on the basis of the “traditions” typology, and considers the issue of hybridity.
