A social enterprise is “a business with primarily social.docVIP

Baseline study of Social Enterprises in Birmingham and Solihull A literature review of social enterprises May 2007 Local Economy Solutions Ltd Introduction This literature review of social enterprise issues is set out under four key headings, these being: A review of definitions of social enterprise Profiling social enterprises Support for social enterprises The impact of social enterprises This is not designed to be a comprehensive review, but a set of work to help inform the implementation of the proposed research programme, in particular, the design of the survey instrument to be utilised. Social Enterprise - A review of different definitions Overview of definitions and issues relating to defining social enterprise Based on a review of a wide range of literature relating to social enterprises, overwhelmingly, the most common definition used is that a social enterprise is “a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners”. This definition is adopted by, among others, A Survey of Social Enterprises Across the UK, Research Report prepared for The Small Business Service (SBS) by IFF Research Ltd, July 2005, the DTI Social Enterprise: A strategy for Success (2002), the Office of the Third Sector website and Social Enterprise Action Plan 2006. Commonly, definitions of social enterprises set the minimum level of income from trading at 50 per cent. However a scoping study by ECOTEC recommended including those with 25-50 per cent income from trading in order to capture emerging social enterprises. Just under 90 per cent (88%) of those surveyed generated 50 per cent or more of their income from trading. The BSSEC website sets out the following with respect to defining social enterprises: Social enterprises are businesses that trade in order to achieve social objectives. They