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Social Enterprises - From Potential To Impact

Author

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  • Bucaciuc Anamaria

    (Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Public Administration)

Abstract

Social economy is seen by many as the magical solution to the social and economic problems which came over time with each economic crisis. An important problem when dealing with social problems is however the need to find solutions which would work at large scale. As Lisbeth Schorr stated “We have learned to create the small exceptions that can change the lives of hundreds. But we have not learned how to make the exceptions the rule to change the lives of millions”. This not only rises the importance of social enterprises but also the necessity of a more strategic and systematic approach to the problem of spreading social innovation. The potential of a social enterprise, connected with the further assessment of its impact is an important correlation which needs further studies. It is one thing for social enterprises to exhibit a great potential, but it is another for that potential to be realized and to produce significant benefits for its target group. Even if the potential of social enterprises is generally known, and this is the reason for which social enterprises benefit from a lot of attention and support, within the literature existing on the social enterprises, the issue of its’ potential is not dealt sufficiently. On the other hand, impact assessment has been studied largely within the literature. This is maybe also because evaluation of social impact is a challenging endeavour for any person analysing a social enterprise, assessing subtle changes which are difficult to be measured, evaluated and traced back to specific events. The impact assessment, made through critical and interpretative accounting theories (which are contextual, seek for engagement, are concerned with micro and macro levels and are interdisciplinary), indicates that the evaluation of the social enterprises’ socio-economic impact can have a base on the positivist, critical and interpretative accounting approaches. However, despite the enthusiasm shown for assessments and metrics, which has been proved by the development of hundreds of different methods used for the calculation of social value, few people use the results in the decision making process. The present paper comes with the proposal to continue further studies on the potential of social enterprises, based on the fact that the correlation between the potential and the impact gives important information for the social enterprise’s general assessment.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:ora:journl:v:1:y:2015:i:1:p:408-412
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    File URL: http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2015/n1/046.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. Alnoor Ebrahim & V. Kasturi Rangan, 2010. "The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework For Measuring Social Performance," Harvard Business School Working Papers 10-099, Harvard Business School.
    3. 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.
    4. Power, Michael & Laughlin, Richard, 1996. "Habermas, law and accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 441-465, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social economy; social enterprise; impact assessment; potential of social enterprise;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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