Editorial

Citation

Doherty, B. (2010), "Editorial", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 6 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/sej.2010.37306caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Enterprise Journal, Volume 6, Issue 3

I am delighted to introduce to you the third edition in 2010 of the Social Enterprise Journal (SEJ ) volume published by Emerald Publishers. First, I would like to thank the journal board, the selected reviewers and of course the authors for the papers enclosed.

First, I am very pleased to announce that the SEJ has been awarded an Association of Business Schools (ABS) of 1*. The latest version of the ABS (UK) Journal Quality List was released in March. We are happy to announce that the SEJ entered the list for the first time in the enterprise and small business management category as a 1* journal. This year, a number of journals were dropped by the list, so gaining a listing is a great achievement for the journal and another indication of the journals increasing quality perception. Thanks to the entire journal board for their efforts in regard to building the journal quality.

However, not wanting to be complacent, we are continuing to develop the journal and improve its standing further. First, the next issue will be the first issue of 2010 and will be titled “The emergence of social enterprise in Eastern Asia”, edited by both Jacques Defourny and Yu Yuan Kuan (National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan). This volume is the result of a partnership between the EMES European Research Network and a group of East Asian researchers. It will focus on the recent development of social enterprise in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Schools of thoughts, including Western influences and the various socio-economic and cultural contexts will be surveyed to explain such an emergence. The various forms of social enterprise will be identified and cross-country comparisons will help to identify the specific features of social enterprise in East Asia. Second, to strengthen the SEJ Journal Board, I would also like to welcome Dr Simon Teasdale to the editorial team as Associate Editor. Simon is Head of the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) at the University of Birmingham.

The ESRC-funded TSRC has been active since September 2008. The centre is primarily split between the Universities of Birmingham and Southampton, with additional contributions from Middlesex and Kent Universities. Additionally, three capacity building clusters have been created to enhance the capacity for research within the third sector. One of these, based at Middlesex, Durham and South Bank Universities, is focused specifically on social enterprise. As part of this, a number of ESRC case studentships are exploring research topics of particular relevance to the social enterprise sector. Within TSRC, nine research streams have been created to cover research on a wide range of issues relevant to policy on the third sector. Research on social enterprise takes place within a dedicated social enterprise stream headed by Fergus Lyon at Middlesex. All working papers, and regularly updated news from TSRC, are available from: www.tsrc.ac.uk. We hope that some of these will be accepted for SEJ. To find out more about TSRC’s research into social enterprise, please contact the Associate Editor of SEJ, Simon Teasdale, at: s.teasdale@tsrc.ac.uk.

TSRC progress

Now to the papers for this international issue of SEJ. The first paper in this issue by Raymond Dart, Erin Clow and Ann Armstrong highlights the conceptual and technical difficulties in mapping “social enterprise” and “social purpose business” organisations. This paper reflects on the design and administration of a social enterprise population survey in Ontario, Canada and is a very useful addition to the previous paper in this journal by Lyon and Sepulva 2009 titled “Mapping social enterprises”.

The second paper by Tim Curtis of the University of Northampton in collaboration with Jan Herbst, Stowarzyszenie Klon/Jawor, Marta Gumkovska and Stowarzyszenie Klon/Jawor from Poland explores the notion, and dynamics, of trust between social enterprises and the public sector in two different cultural contexts (UK and Poland). The insights derived from this paper are most interesting and provide some very useful notes of guidance to public sector agents working with social entrepreneurs to understand the trust resources required, and the limits to that trust, and the impact of bureaucratisation on the social enterprise start-ups.

The third paper by Michelle Therese Hackett from the University of Adelaide, South Australia is an excellent paper, which reviews the current social enterprise literature to show how key social enterprise debates are currently Western, welfare-state oriented. The paper then uses the example of Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen social enterprises in Bangladesh to uncover some of the implications of this for developing countries. The fourth paper by Dr Laratta Rosario from the University of Tokyo investigates a study of ethical climates in non-profit and government sectors in Japan, in order to determine the extent to which similarities (and differences) exist in ethical climate dimensions, what drives the differences and what are the implications for the sectors in this country. The final paper by Mike Bull, Research Fellow Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr Rory Ridley-Duff, Senior Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University, Dr Doug Foster, Senior Lecturer, University of Surrey and Pam Seanor, Associate Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University is a most excellent conceptual paper which proposes ethical capital as an alternative and unrecognised conceptualisation in the field of social enterprise. It really is a must read!

Bob Doherty