Editorial

Social Enterprise Journal

ISSN: 1750-8614

Article publication date: 25 May 2010

132

Citation

Doherty, B. (2010), "Editorial", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sej.2010.37306aaa.001

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Enterprise Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1

I am delighted to introduce to you the first issue of 2010 for the Social Enterprise Journal (SEJ ) published by Emerald Group Publishing. First, I would like to thank the journal board, the selected reviewers and of course the authors for the papers enclosed.

The first paper by Dr Chris Mason from Liverpool John Moores University looks at Governance issues within Social Firms in the UK. This research provides new empirical evidence to support the governance challenges facing many social enterprise practitioners in the UK. This paper is timely bearing in mind the forthcoming special edition of SEJ (second issue 2010) on the Governance of Social Enterprise. The second paper by Dr Simon Teasdale from the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham titled “Models of social enterprise in the homelessness field” was first presented at the International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISRC) at the University of Oxford (14-16 September 2009). The paper identifies the different ways in which social enterprise responds to the needs of homeless people and the challenges faced. The paper is the first to bring together these two sets of literatures.

The third paper by Ms Li Zhao and Professor Patrick Develtere of the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium was originally presented at the 2nd EMES Conference on Social Enterprise (Trento, Italy, 1-4 July 2009). This paper looks at the very interesting development of new co-operatives in China. This paper is our first paper in the SEJ looking at developments of social enterprise in Eastern Asia. In fact, the first SEJ issue of 2011 will be a special one fully devoted to “The emergence of social enterprise in Eastern Asia”. Its preparation started with the setting up of a joint research project by the EMES European Research Network and a group of scholars from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. After a working session linked to the 2nd EMES International Conference on Social Enterprise in Trento last July 2009, contributions from each country will be presented at an International Conference to be held in Taiwan, June 2010.

The fourth paper by Dr Sue Baines, Mr Mike Bull and Mr Ryan Woolrych from Manchester Metropolitan University was first presented at the Institute of Small Business Entreprenuership Conference in Liverpool, UK on 3-6 November 2009. The paper titled “A more entrepreneurial mindset? Engaging third sector suppliers to the National Health Service” looks at the challenge and opportunities for third sector organisations from the World Class Commissioning agenda in the UK health and social care market. This work is funded by an Economic Social Research Council Business Engagaement Scheme grant to stimulate more third sector organisations to consider bidding for National Health Service contracts.

The fifth paper by Mr Robbie Davison provides a UK practitioner’s perspective on the role of the third sector in delivering community cohesion at a local level, in a district of Liverpool called Speke (postcode L24), indexed as the most deprived area in England. The paper was first presented at the ISRC at Oxford University 14-16 September 2009 and provides a critical perspective on the impact of national policy at the local level.

In addition, forthcoming research events in 2010 which SEJ will be attending include; the biannual conference in Istanbul of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (7-10 July). Also, in June 2010, EMES will hold its 2nd EMES PhD Summer School, which will take place in Roskilde (Denmark) from 30 June through to 4 July 2010 (web site: www.emes.net). The Second International Social Research Innovation Conference will take place at the Said Business School at the University of Oxford, 13-15 September 2010. There will be streams at this conference in governance, institutional theory, knowledge transfer, strategic management, international comparative studies of social enterprise, this stream will be chaired by Janelle Kerlin. The call for papers is due out shortly which will list all the different streams. SEJ will attend this conference and our aim will be to publish a conference edition in 2011 and present best conference paper award.

Bob Doherty

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