Recently, social enterprise has attracted much attention among both practitioners and academicians. It is often to be an effective alternative to government and market for providing social service to the underprivileged. The Korean government enacted ...
Recently, social enterprise has attracted much attention among both practitioners and academicians. It is often to be an effective alternative to government and market for providing social service to the underprivileged. The Korean government enacted a law to promote social enterprise in 2007, and since then has provided those certified social enterprises with many support including financial subsides, managerial consultation, and so on. While the idea of social enterprise seems promising and some success stories are told here and there in Korea, an important issue around the current state of social enterprise is now being raised seriously. It is the issue of sustainability of social enterprise.
The issue of sustainability has not been seriously studied before. While some worries about the sustainability of social enterprise have been addressed among practitioners and some existing studies have of social enterprise have suggested how to make social enterprise sustainable, these worries and studies have been neither theoretically based nor empirically proved. As this study addresses the issue of sustainability of social enterprise, it pays attention to the factors that contribute to the sustainability of social enterprise. Among many probable factors, this study focuses on social entrepreneurship. In other words, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of social entrepreneurship with sustainability of social enterprise. How social entrepreneurship can contribute to sustainability of social enterprise is the main research question that this study attempts to provide and answer.
After readings on entrepreneurship, social enterprise, and so forth, the study suggested that social entrepreneurship is composed of four ingredients; orientation to social values, innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking. And the study further suggested that a social enterprise can be said to be sustainable when it achieves social objectives, equips with sound economic base, and develops supportive environmental acceptance. To investigate the relationship between social entrepreneurship and sustainability of social enterprise, the study employed a case study method and interviewed with representatives of seven social enterprises. The interview data was complemented with the simple self-assessment survey data. The major finding of the study are as follows.
First, while social entrepreneurship was an essential stepping stone to launch a social enterprise, it also contribute to its sustainability. Its contribution to sustainability worked through as the ingredients of social entrepreneurship were embedded in the daily operations of social enterprise.
Second, it turned out that importance by component of sustainability of social enterprises and social entrepreneurship appears differently depending on social enterprises and there is a difference in types of social enterprises, activity areas. That is, the possibility that components of major social entrepreneurship can be operated differently by type of social enterprises was identified.
Third, it was identified that social entrepreneurship is functioning as an important factor for sustainable social enterprises. That is, it can be said that as social entrepreneurship increases, sustainability of social enterprises also increases.
Finally, it was identified that each factor making up sustainability of social enterprises and social entrepreneurship form mutual organic relationship rather than working independently. In particular, this study identified the fact that the starting point for sustainable social enterprises is to achieve social objectives and this forms the virtuous cycle structure changing the environmental acceptance and in turn, leading to the formation of the economic foundation. And it was identified that social value orientation is working first for the foundation to achieve social purpose.
Based on the results of this analysis, The following policy implications can be discussed.
First, for sustainable social enterprises, it is necessary to convert into the policy creating the environmental conditions where social enterprises can work themselves while maintaining the balance of each factor rather than promoting support policy focusing on a specific factor.
Second, for sustainable social enterprises, social enterprises themselves should work hard to form the foundation and have sufficient capacities. In addition, the government should support to back up these efforts of social enterprises. Particularly, with respect to financial support of the government, through differential support suitable for the situation of each social enterprise rather than supporting social enterprises in a lump, the policy needs to be converted in a way minimizing the impact of a company when support is stopped.
Third, for sustainable social enterprises, it was identified that social entrepreneurship is an important factor. However, in reality, institutional support and government support to cultivate social entrepreneurship are not sufficient. It is necessary to develop programs which can educate social entrepreneurship systematically and in stages.
Finally, it is necessary to build the evaluation system which social enterprises themselves can monitor and evaluate. That is, it is necessary to build and use the system such as social audit system which can comprehensively evaluate and monitor the aspects of achievement of social objectives, economic profit activities, realization of social values etc.
The biggest meaning of this study is that it found out the substantial relationship and operating principle of each factor away from that studies related to social entrepreneurship and sustainability of social enterprises were limited to theoretical studies.