Special Issue "Building Stronger Communities through Social Enterprise"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 September 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. John Schouten
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1C 5S7, Canada
Interests: Understanding and facilitating social enterprise as a source of economic, ecological, social, and cultural resilience and renewal. Keywords: marketing for sustainability, market emergence, consumer entrepreneurship and innovation, consumer communities and organizing, identity construction and reconstruction
Dr. Melea Press
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Skema Business School, Campus de Lille, Avenue Willy Brandt, 59777, France
Interests: Business models, cultural marketing strategy, legitimacy, market change, market systems, multi-stakeholder interactions. Keywords: business model innovation, entrepreneurship and innovation, market system dynamics, sustainable marketing strategy, sustainability and exchange
Dr. Beth DuFault
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Business, University at Albany-SUNY, Albany, NY 12222, USA
Interests: Sociocultural change, marketization of the public sphere, consumer identity construction, consumer quantification, prosocial marketing, marketing for social enterprise. Keywords: sociology of consumption, services marketing, consumer culture, identity construction, datafication, surveillance, marketization

Special Issue Information

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 papers will be 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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 1900 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.

Keywords

  • Social enterprise
  • Social entrepreneurship
  • Social innovation
  • Indigenous entrepreneurship
  • Rural development and renewal
  • Urban renewal
  • Restorative and regenerative organizations
  • Social value creation
  • Inclusive economies
  • Post-capitalist economies

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Social Enterprise in Mexico, a New Business Classification
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9264; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169264 - 18 Aug 2021
Viewed by 212
Abstract
Social Enterprise (SE) is an increasingly important sector for generating employment and distributing wealth in market structures. The social business type two (SB2)—a very specific type of SE—is a category that has challenged orthodox theoretical elements in its main assumptions and behavior in [...] Read more.
Social Enterprise (SE) is an increasingly important sector for generating employment and distributing wealth in market structures. The social business type two (SB2)—a very specific type of SE—is a category that has challenged orthodox theoretical elements in its main assumptions and behavior in the markets. SB2 is mainly classified within the category of microenterprises because they have a very small number of employees. A new official business classification is important to differentiate enterprises not only by size, but also by type of behavior. There is a new indicator that compares the profit levels of microenterprises with the poverty line as a representative tool to classify Mexican microenterprises into profit seekers and SB2. When these outcomes are contrasted with a discrete choice model under the logistic functional form, the probabilities that this indicator classifies a microenterprise with entrepreneurship by necessity, installed capacity maximization and no profit seeking as SB2 is 80% for microenterprises up to ten workers, and goes up to 92% for microenterprises with one person. With such a new classification, better policies could be promoted to support SB2, and help address both the lack of opportunities from the market economy and poverty menace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Stronger Communities through Social Enterprise)
Article
Building Sustainable Rural Communities through Indigenous Social Enterprises: A Humanistic Approach
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9643; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229643 - 19 Nov 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 683
Abstract
This article follows a humanistic management approach to analyze how indigenous social enterprises contribute to building sustainable rural communities. To this end, I first explore the process of how these entities were formed and developed the necessary capabilities to generate such outcomes. Then, [...] Read more.
This article follows a humanistic management approach to analyze how indigenous social enterprises contribute to building sustainable rural communities. To this end, I first explore the process of how these entities were formed and developed the necessary capabilities to generate such outcomes. Then, I examine the strategies indigenous social enterprises create to engage in value creation activities with the community and their main outcomes. Such outcomes are finally classified by the problems they addressed according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), since one of the gaps in the literature indicates a lack of studies that relate specific SDGs with the outcomes of social enterprises in developing countries. This article follows a qualitative approach, a case study research strategy, and uses semi-structured interviews as the main data collection instrument. Evidence from four cases of indigenous social enterprises in Latin America suggests that these entities originate as a result of a major crisis that affects the dignity of the individuals and compromises the socio-economic dynamics of the communities. Second, local leadership urges a response that takes the form of a social enterprise that follows local principles and governance and pursues dignity protection, sustainability, and cultural reaffirmation. As a result, the communities have increased their levels of well-being and sustainability, linked to SDGs such as good health, decent work, reduced inequalities, public infrastructure, sustainable communities, and partnerships for the goals. This article also sheds light on how a humanistic management approach can contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of social enterprises, as these humanistic principles and practices seem to be naturally promoted by social entrepreneurs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Stronger Communities through Social Enterprise)
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