Meaningful difficulties in the mapping of social enterprises
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight conceptual and technical difficulties in mapping “social enterprise” and “social purpose business” organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reflects on the design and administration of a social enterprise population survey in Ontario, Canada.
Findings
Numerous approaches used to frame social enterprise organizations were seriously flawed and fundamentally problematic, and criteria to distinguish social enterprise from other organizations were seemingly arbitrary, unstable, or unworkable.
Originality/value
This paper both contributes to those attempting to empirically research social enterprise organizations, and to the broader discussion concerning whether social enterprise is usefully approached as a distinctive organizational form.
Keywords
Citation
Dart, R., Clow, E. and Armstrong, A. (2010), "Meaningful difficulties in the mapping of social enterprises", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 186-193. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508611011088797
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited