Details
Year: 2016
Published in: ICSEM Working Papers
Cited as: Thiru, Y. (2016) “Social Enterprise in the United States: Socio-economic Roles of Certain Types of Social Enterprise”, No. 16.
Subject
Social Enterprise in the USA: Socio-economic Roles of Certain Types of Social Enterprise
Abstract
This paper proposes a classification of some social enterprise types in the USA based on their role orientation in the larger socioeconomic context and identifies variables that may be used to distinguish them. Self-identified social enterprises and those recognized as such by proxy organizations such as Ashoka, Skoll Foundation, and Social Enterprise Alliance were sources of data for this two-staged study. The types are (1) commercial and nonprofit enterprises that trade for a social cause such as environmental conservation, access to markets, fair wages, etc. (“trading for social cause” type); (2) organizations that enable grassroots social change focused on directly working with specific populations for providing basic human needs such as healthcare, food, sanitation, and education, etc. (“grassroots transformation” type); and (3) those that contribute in a systemic way through advocacy for social justice, human rights, democracy, etc., (“social advocacy” type). The paper suggests that these social enterprise types may be distinguished using the following variables: roles played by social enterprises (cause, grassroots local solutions, and social advocacy); organizational proximity (close or distant); and benefit proximity (direct or indirect).
