IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v222y2019icp154-161.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the contribution of social enterprise to health and social care: A realist evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Caló, Francesca
  • Roy, Michael James
  • Donaldson, Cam
  • Teasdale, Simon
  • Baglioni, Simone

Abstract

Since the late 1990s social enterprises have been increasingly utilised as a means of delivering of health and social care services. However, there is little evidence on if, and how, provision by social enterprise might achieve positive health outcomes, particularly in comparison to other modes of delivery. In this paper, we draw upon the multiple perspectives offered by stakeholders involved in a rural social enterprise initiative based in Scotland, UK, and in a nearby comparator public sector organisation. Both types of organisation aim to increase the physical activity levels of people with chronic health conditions. In order to gain perspectives on the range of mechanisms and outcomes involved in different types of organisation providing similar interventions, realist evaluation of data gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 68) was undertaken. Interviews were carried out with beneficiaries, service providers and external stakeholders and Context-Mechanism-Outcome (CMO) configurations developed to support our explanations for how, and in what ways, social enterprise might impact differently on health. Our findings highlight that the social enterprise is differentiated from the publicly-run service in two distinct ways: firstly, the social enterprise was better able to flexibly deliver a bespoke programme designed around the needs of service users; and secondly, their role as a community ‘boundary spanner’ helped facilitate strong ties and feelings of connectedness between beneficiaries, organisational staff and community stakeholders. However, these advantages were significantly compromised when funding was constrained. Our findings serve as an important basis for future research to better understand the means by which social enterprises might deliver health outcomes, particularly in comparison with public sector providers.

Suggested Citation

  • Caló, Francesca & Roy, Michael James & Donaldson, Cam & Teasdale, Simon & Baglioni, Simone, 2019. "Exploring the contribution of social enterprise to health and social care: A realist evaluation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 154-161.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:222:y:2019:i:c:p:154-161
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619300073
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    2. Roy, Michael J. & Donaldson, Cam & Baker, Rachel & Kerr, Susan, 2014. "The potential of social enterprise to enhance health and well-being: A model and systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 182-193.
    3. Francesca Calò & Simon Teasdale & Cam Donaldson & Michael J. Roy & Simone Baglioni, 2018. "Collaborator or competitor: assessing the evidence supporting the role of social enterprise in health and social care," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(12), pages 1790-1814, December.
    4. Borzaga, Carlo & Fazzi, Luca, 2014. "Civil society, third sector, and healthcare: The case of social cooperatives in Italy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 234-241.
    5. Nicholls, Alex, 2009. "'We do good things, don't we?': 'Blended Value Accounting' in social entrepreneurship," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 755-769, August.
    6. Robin Miller & Ross Millar & Kelly Hall, 2012. "New development: Spin-outs and social enterprise: the ‘right to request’ programme for health and social care services," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 233-236, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kirsten Thecla Verkooijen & Sabina Super & Lisanne Sofie Mulderij & Dico de Jager & Annemarie Wagemakers, 2020. "Using Realist Interviews to Improve Theory on the Mechanisms and Outcomes of Sport for Development Programmes," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 152-161.
    2. Khalid, Shazmin & Dixon, Shrijna & Vijayasingham, Lavanya, 2022. "The gender responsiveness of social entrepreneurship in health – A review of initiatives by Ashoka fellows," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khalid, Shazmin & Dixon, Shrijna & Vijayasingham, Lavanya, 2022. "The gender responsiveness of social entrepreneurship in health – A review of initiatives by Ashoka fellows," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Macaulay, Bobby & Mazzei, Micaela & Roy, Michael J. & Teasdale, Simon & Donaldson, Cam, 2018. "Differentiating the effect of social enterprise activities on health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 211-217.
    3. Bucaciuc Anamaria, 2015. "Social Enterprises - From Potential To Impact," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 408-412, July.
    4. Changbin Woo & Hyejin Jung, 2022. "The Impact of Social Enterprises on Individual Wellbeing in South Korea: The Moderating Roles of Social Capital in Multilevel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 433-454, January.
    5. Bridget O'Laughlin & Bridget O'Laughlin, 2016. "Forum 2016," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(4), pages 686-711, July.
    6. Hugh Gravelle & Matt Sutton, 2009. "Income, relative income, and self‐reported health in Britain 1979–2000," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(2), pages 125-145, February.
    7. Murphy Patrick J. & Pollack Jeff & Nagy Brian & Rutherford Matthew & Coombes Susan, 2019. "Risk Tolerance, Legitimacy, and Perspective: Navigating Biases in Social Enterprise Evaluations," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Rey, Sergio, 2015. "Bells in Space: The Spatial Dynamics of US Interpersonal and Interregional Income Inequality," MPRA Paper 69482, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Oshio, Takashi & Urakawa, Kunio, 2013. "The association between perceived income inequality and subjective well-being: Evidence from a social survey in Japan," CIS Discussion paper series 579, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    10. Tadadjeu, Sosson & Njangang, Henri & Asongu, Simplice A. & Kamguia, Brice, 2023. "Natural resources, child mortality and governance quality in African countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Wong, Irene O.L. & Cowling, Benjamin J. & Lo, Su-Vui & Leung, Gabriel M., 2009. "A multilevel analysis of the effects of neighbourhood income inequality on individual self-rated health in Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 124-132, January.
    12. Farrokhi, Farid & Jinkins, David, 2019. "Wage inequality and the location of cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 76-92.
    13. Scott Alan Carson & Scott A. Carson, 2022. "Nineteenth and Early 20th Century Physical Activity and Calories by Gender and Race," CESifo Working Paper Series 10140, CESifo.
    14. Luigi Corvo & Lavinia Pastore & Arianna Manti & Daniel Iannaci, 2021. "Mapping Social Impact Assessment Models: A Literature Overview for a Future Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-16, April.
    15. Liat Ayalon & Klaus Rothermund, 2018. "Examining the utility of national indicators of relative age disadvantage in Europe," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 189-197, June.
    16. Chunping Han, 2014. "Health Implications of Socioeconomic Characteristics, Subjective Social Status, and Perceptions of Inequality: An Empirical Study of China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 495-514, November.
    17. Maite Blázquez & Elena Cottini & Ainhoa Herrarte, 2014. "The socioeconomic gradient in health: how important is material deprivation?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(2), pages 239-264, June.
    18. Carlo Borzaga & Silvia Sacchetti, 2015. "Why Social Enterprises Are Asking to Be Multi-stakeholder and Deliberative: An Explanation around the Costs of Exclusion," Euricse Working Papers 1575, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    19. Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Raimund Bleischwitz, 2020. "Business models for environmental sustainability: Contemporary shortcomings and some perspectives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3352-3369, December.
    20. Seemab Gillani & Muhammad Nouman Shafiq & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad, 2019. "Military Expenditures and Health Outcomes: A Global Perspective," iRASD Journal of Energy and Environment, International Research Association for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:222:y:2019:i:c:p:154-161. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.