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This paper aims to explain the development of the social economy by analyzing when, why and how the community interest company (CIC) legal structure was established in the UK. The CIC legal structure was designed for social enterprise to ensure that company assets are committed to public benefit in perpetuity.

This research paper uses archival data and semistructured interviews to analyze the historical development of the social economy, emergence of social enterprise and the establishment of the CIC legal structure.

The historical analysis describes why and how the idea for the CIC emerged from practitioners and explains how collaboration between practitioners, lawyers, civil servants and politicians established the CIC as a new legal structure for social enterprise.

The analysis explains how practitioners influenced policy development and demonstrates how practitioner influence can be usefully incorporated into policy development.

The CIC legal structure advanced the social economy by creating an institutionally recognized brand identity for social enterprise that locks assets to public benefit in perpetuity.

The paper presents a detailed empirical account of the establishment of a new legal structure for social enterprise and applies theoretical concepts to develop an integrated account of social economy advancement.

The common good refers to contextual conditions that contribute to human wellbeing and flourishing, such as prosperous communities and environmental sustainability. In this paper, we consider how entrepreneurship impacts society by investigating the generalized outcomes of social entrepreneurship on the common good. From a qualitative study of ten large and profitable social enterprises in the United Kingdom, we theorize how social entrepreneurship contributes to the common good in the short and long term. We also conjecture how some commercial practices undermine the common good and further, explain how the common good performs as a conceptual anchor for social entrepreneurship.

This paper discusses the practical impact of recent European Union (EU) hygiene legislation on small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the fish‐processing industry in north‐east Scotland. Using data gathered via participant observation and in‐depth interviews, the paper reveals the attitudes and responses from four SMEs to the most recent EU hygiene requirements, and discusses the lessons that can be learned from their experiences. The results highlight the impact of an industry culture in which modernisation was interpreted by some as unnecessary. Incorporating responses from the local authority and regional trade association, the conclusion emphasises the need for cultural sensitivity in policy development and implementation. The research also endorses the need for SMEs to adopt a proactive approach to influencing future legislation, and to be actively involved in pre‐statutory collaboration and consultation.

Third-sector organizations have been described as intermediate organizations (Evers, 1995) in mixed economies (Ben-Ner & van Hoomissen, 1991) that are situated in the interstices between the private and the public sector. This curious mode of defining a group of organizations in terms of something they are not has created a rich field of opportunities to explore the interfaces between them and other organizations in the private, public or third sectors. Research has emerged from this juxtaposition that explores the maintenance of organizational differences and the processes of organizational convergence. Interest in hybridization as a process to explain the management of the conflicting pressures to maintain difference and foster convergence has led to advances in institutional theory (Battilana & Dorado, 2010), institutional entrepreneurship (Tracey, Phillips, & Jarvis, 2011) and our understanding of bricolage (DiDomenico, Haugh, & Tracey, 2010). In their chapter, Le Ber and Branzei add to this area of critical analysis by adopting feminist theory to extend our understanding of hybridization practices in the third sector.

This section provides a number of useful overviews to key elements of the Third Sector whilst presenting some quite distinct and contrasting angles of current studies of the sector. The chapter by Haugh and Peredo neatly builds upon previous analyses of UK government policies towards the sector (Haugh & Kitson, 2007), and here analyses the discourse associated with the development of a new legal form for social enterprises, Community Interest Company. The chapter by Myers and Cato focuses on a different and much older legal form, the co-operative, in their discussion of the current ‘mutual moment’ in Wales in the context of increasing government pressure to shift the provision of key basic services from the public sector to other organisations. In the chapter by Delalieux and Kourula, the focus is global rather than national as the authors critically analyse the literature examining the ability of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to have positive, progressive impacts on multinational corporations, an ability which is often touted as one of their raison d'êtres.

ELSEWHERE in this number we list libraries which have Esent us copies of their annual reports which we are glad to have. Now and again we are able to elaborate on these, but in the present issue that has not been possible. We would say, however, that these reports are deserving of the attention of librarians generally, and of students at the library schools. They are records of work in progress, and they do suggest the development of library policy. The best of them are of textbook value.

Purpose – This chapter introduces, problematizes, and extends research on business model innovation in the third sector from a feminist perspective. We examine how the issues of marginalization, subordination, and cooptation are revealed in dominant business models. These issues form a “dark triangle” that third-sector organizations strive to overcome.

Design/methodology/approach – We draw on a historical case study of Goodwill Industries International, Inc. (GII) to illustrate how business model innovations can counterbalance this dark triangle through three types of hybridization practices that can (re)engage the marginalized, the subordinated, and the coopted in more socially positive and economically viable opportunities.

Findings – This chapter uses a methodology of problematization to rebalance the overproblematization of critical management studies and the underproblematization of the mainstream literature on business models.

Originality/value – By recasting business model innovations as devices for reflection-in-action, this study extends the discussion on business models from the mainstream business literature to critical management studies; we underscore the versatility of business model in the third sector by first unpacking the social issues they are trying to solve and then decomposing them into specific sets of hybrid practices that explain how the desired social change can be effectively implemented.

Purpose – The aim of this chapter is to analyse the discourse associated with, and preceding the establishment of, the community interest company (CIC) legal format in the United Kingdom in 2005. The analysis identifies the political, ideological, social and economic meta-narratives that are embedded in five key texts from which the CIC emerges and is codified.

Design, methodology and approach – The approach consists of a discourse analysis of five principal texts produced between 2002 and 2005 in which the idea of a CIC is articulated and refined prior to the launch of the CIC format in 2005.

Findings – Analysis of five key texts elucidates four meta-narratives that contrast political, ideological, social and economic discourse and counter-discourse.

Research implications and limitations – The selection of five key texts excludes other texts that were produced during the articulation and refinement of the CIC format. Further research to examine the diffusion, adoption and translation of the CIC legal format is recommended.

Practical implications – We show how the crafting of policy is embedded in meta-narratives that shape the content and implementation of policy.

Social implications – The CIC protects, in perpetuity, collectively held property rights through an asset lock, and enables capital to be raised from investors and trustees to be paid. These characteristics are beneficial in that community asset ownership can contribute to local development, e.g. by creating new ventures, generating jobs and anchoring wealth in communities; raising capital from investors can facilitate the enterprise to grow and scale up; and the expertise of the board can be enhanced by rewarding trustees financially for their involvement in the governance of the CIC.

Originality – This chapter presents the first critical analysis of the discourse associated with the origins of the idea for, and articulation of, the need for a legal format for social enterprises in the United Kingdom.