Building Stronger Communities through Social Enterprise

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Sustainability delves into social enterprise (SE) as a promising and potentially structural antidote to the most destructive forces of corporate capitalism. SE is the use of commercial means to advance social missions. A hallmark of SE is the reinvestment of earnings in communities as opposed to profit-taking for investors. We are especially interested in understanding the power of SE to advance the environmental, social, cultural, and economic sustainability of communities, both rural and urban. We ask questions such as: How can commerce be more just and beneficial? What would be the implications of an SE-based economy? What mechanisms could bring that about?

Social enterprise research is a hopeful space. Scholars from many fields who long for a different kind of world are embracing the study of SE as a possible means to that end. We see recent studies of SE proliferating across disciplines. For instance, we find work in management on organizational forms, legal structures, and management challenges. Entrepreneurship scholars examine the importance of place, entrepreneurial ecosystems, indigenous perspectives, and processes. Marketing scholars focus on the development of marketing tools and service cultures to better ensure the success of SEs. Sociology produces theoretical and critical perspectives on topics such as neoliberalism in the SE space. Scholars of public policy, administration, and governance argue for better ways to encourage SE success. We similarly find work in areas such as political economy, geography, women’s studies, agriculture, public health, and the list goes on. Research at the intersection of SE and sustainability is similarly gaining ground and claiming territory. These research streams mark a good beginning, but much work is still needed to understand the potential of SE to support and renew communities.

With this Special Issue of Sustainability, we seek to expand, deepen, and integrate our understanding of social enterprise at micro-, meso-, and macrolevels of analysis. Broad areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to:

• SE as a mindset or orientation to entrepreneurship, business, and society
• SE organizations, their challenges, and their management
• SE toolkits for practitioners (in marketing, management, finance, accounting, etc.)
• SE ecosystems, their components, relationships, and cultural contexts
• SE in and as a socio-political movement
• SE as a potential replacement for corporate capitalism in many sectors of the economy
• SE as a model for sustainable growth (or downscaling)

We are keen to understand not only the potential and the workings of SE, but also its boundaries, limitations, and challenges.

In keeping with the interdisciplinary spirit of Sustainability, we encourage contributions from scholars in all areas of academia dealing with business and society. Contributing disciplines may include, but are not limited to: sociology, geography, anthropology, arts and humanities, rural and urban development, economics, indigenous studies, women’s studies, public health, agriculture, communication, marketing, market studies, supply chains, finance, economic and social policy, and sustainable development. We welcome papers that contribute to theory, management practice, or public policy through empirical, critical, or conceptual research.

Dr. John Schouten
Dr. Melea Press
Dr. Beth DuFault
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.