The Organization of Social Enterprises

Abstract

Growing interest in the role of business entities in addressing social problems highlights the potential of social enterprises—organizations that cover all or most of their costs through revenue-generating business and have an objective to address a societal problem. A social enterprise can be an efficient and effective way to create social value by internalizing externalities, exploiting complementarities with commercial activities, providing better prices or quality to disadvantaged customers, and reducing the need for scarce philanthropic support. The challenges of managing an organization for financial success and social impact may limit their potential. Social enterprises can be for-profit or nonprofit organizations. The legal and institutional structure of for-profit and nonprofit governance and financing makes it challenging for a social entrepreneur to find a business model and organization structure to succeed. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Economics, Volume 15 is August 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.