Social Enterprise Recommendations Overview

1. Future research could further study the nuances of beneficiary engagement, as these could have an impact on experience.

2. For example, would a beneficiary’s level of engagement (whether they are highly involved with the social enterprise as reflected in having dual roles or reporting to work on a regular basis versus coming to work whenever the need for income arises) affect their experience of social value creation?

3. Does the experience of social value creation differ for beneficiaries who engage with social enterprises as an organised group (as in the case of cooperatives) as opposed to those who engage individually?

4. The sample of social enterprises could be expanded through further research to examine the conditions under which beneficiaries could be exploited.

1. Many university courses may be enhanced by involvement in social entrepreneurship business plan competitions.

2. Relatedly, business schools may also gain from their students working closely with “real people” in community groups to understand the complexity involved in dealing with wicked problems.

1. This research can be replicated in the context of social enterprises with circular economy solutions, to examine how the convergence of the ‘social’ and the ‘market’ as a single development logic is enacted in socially inclusive circular economy entrepreneurial practices. Using the same method and approach to examine the social-market overlapping process, a comparative crosscountry multi case study between developed and developing countries.

2. Future research must combine agency theory, actor-network theory, green economy, and ecosystem research to explore how different change agents and ecosystem actor networks combine a social-market convergence with technocratic-economic initiatives for accelerating a socially inclusive green growth. This will open up new frontiers connecting social science and environmental science research for findings ways to create a more resilient and cleaner future.

1. Social entrepreneurs and practising managers should not consider the wholesale adoption and implementation of ecosystem growth strategy to scale social impact. Rather, while implementing ecosystem growth strategy to scale social impact, they need to remain open and vigilant to refine their activities to better reflect the important subtleties of the context in question.

2. Social entrepreneurs should recognise that ecosystem growth strategy is not a panacea for scaling social impact; rather, this strategy can backfire under certain conditions.

1. Recognise that some Social Enterprise and beneficiary communities will require greater and more long-lasting forms of support than others.

2. For those designing public venture capital programmes: there is a need to consider the context in which a programme is embedded: transferring commercial venture capital tools into an Social Enterprise environment may not work.

3. Finally, policymakers who see the potential of SEs for solving persistent social problems need to consider a holistic approach to SE development; financial investments do not offer a ‘quick-fix’ and more comprehensive support including, for example, capacity building is needed.

1. Recognise that some Social Enterprise and beneficiary communities will require greater and more long-lasting forms of support than others.

2. For those designing public venture capital programmes: there is a need to consider the context in which a programme is embedded: transferring commercial venture capital tools into an Social Enterprise environment may not work.

1. Further research should examine whether SEs are able to survive in the long term (after the public venture capital venture is withdrawn) and with what effects on their beneficiaries.

2. To develop a coordinated evaluation of the Social Innovation Fund, exploring its success in producing sustainability for a variety of SEs and examining the conclusions reached in this study with a larger sample. Given that all SEOs funded by the Social Innovation Fund are required to work collaboratively with research institutions to evaluate their work – as in the case of Heavy Sound and GCU – this would appear to present a rich stream of data for future analysis.