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This study aims to analyse how top-level policymakers across the political left-right spectrum in a social-democratic welfare state understand social enterprise (SE), its relation to existing welfare institutions and their intentions of policymaking towards SE.

This study conducted in-depth interviews explicitly focused on SE with policymakers at the national level in Norway. The informants collectively represented most political parties in Norway’s Parliament in 2017–2021. Data were analysed using a historical institutional perspective.

Centre-right wing policymakers predominantly consider SE as commercial enterprises not requiring specific policies. Left wing policymakers prefer that SEs operate like voluntary organizations and advocate policies preventing extraction of profit and competition with public service providers. Hence, policymakers positioned SE within an overarching political debate on the privatization of welfare services. They expressed little interest in developing policies aimed at strengthening SE opportunity structures.

Policy inaction impedes recognition of SEs as different from commercial and voluntary organizations, as well as their ability to compete for tenders. Thus, SE will likely remain a rather marginal phenomenon in Norway. Further research is needed to establish whether and how Norway’s universal welfare state inhibits social entrepreneurship on the society-wide level.

This article details how SE is understood within a social democratic welfare regime and the likely consequences thereof for SEs. It contributes with new knowledge of why policymakers may be reluctant to develop policy dedicated to further SE, across different political party affiliations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Norway to analyse how existing institutions and political controversies influence how policymakers at the national level approach SE.

There has been much research focusing on contracting and its effect on individual voluntary sector organisation, and some mapping of the extent of voluntary sector participation in joint community care planning. Each of these is a new and formal relationship with the statutory sector, and in many cases the tasks are fulfilled by the same voluntary sector worker (usually the senior paid officer of the agency). But the impact that these two new relationships have on the voluntary organisation’s perception of its dependence and inter‐dependence has received less attention. The paper will draw on structured interviews in three local authorities, with voluntary sector participants in contracts for social care, and with participants in joint community care planning groups, as well as on documentary research. It will explore the impact of the evolving roles for those seeking to operate effectively in the pluralist provision of public services. It will analyse experiences within joint community care planning structures, and will analyse experiences of contractual relationships. The paper will seek to identify the elements present in each research site which influence the culture of joint working within the two statutory/ voluntary relationships.

At present no satisfactory economic theory of non‐profit organizational leadership exists. The purpose of this paper is to develop an economic theory of non‐profit leadership and apply this theory to the problem of non‐profit failure or “voluntary sector failure.”

The paper draws on the economic literature on the non‐profit sector to critically examine this approach to theorizing about non‐profit organizations (NPOs). It then considers the contribution that Lester Salamon has made to the understanding of NPOs. It is argued that the very sources of non‐profit “distinctiveness” identified by Salamon are also simultaneously associated with “voluntary sector failure.” An economic theory of non‐profit leadership is developed and it is held that appropriate leadership can reduce voluntary failure.

The major comparative advantages of NPOs make these agencies particularly prone to various forms of “voluntary failure” that present challenges not only to NPOs, but also public policy makers. This paper presents a theory of non‐profit leadership that seeks to demonstrate that appropriate forms of non‐profit leadership can overcome, or at least ameliorate, voluntary failure.

Future research could determine empirically whether leadership plays a decisive role in the performance of the non‐profit sector. This would assist in assessing the empirical validity of the presented in this paper.

The literature on non‐profit failure is incomplete without an adequate theory of non‐profit leadership. This paper develops a theory of non‐profit organizational leadership and argues that appropriate leadership can reduce the extent and severity of non‐profit failure.

This article gives an overview of the services provided for people with intellectual disabilities in Germany. On principle we assume that the field of services in this country, its problems, strengths and opportunities for development, can be understood only if one is familiar with the development pathways and specific historical experiences. Church welfare and powerful voluntary welfare organisations, traditional psychiatry and its ‘oligophrenic’ ideal, the division of state funding competencies into local and centralised levels and the commitments of a new generation of parents organised in the association Lebenshilfe were important factors for the development of the current structures. These can be characterised by the persistence of residential facilities, although it has been the legal mission of the social administration since 1984 to give priority to the expansion of non‐residential services. Specific financial mechanisms promote institutionalisation from the perspective of the local authorities and impede the implementation of integrative approaches in the community.

The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of a Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) Report published in June 2008 for the role of voluntary, community and faith (VCF) based organisations in supporting and developing networks of support and influence at the local level.

The paper draws upon the empirical data collected for one of the case studies in the JRF report and develops the conclusions drawn.

The roles played by key individuals in VCF organisations may “open” up access to services for refugee and asylum seekers but they may also inhibit access. Their significance as centres of influence and authority in a post‐representative form of local democracy suggests that their role may have been under‐estimated in the UK. At the same time, local state organisations are experimenting with devolved street based or neighbourhood focussed approaches and these twin developments raise issues of accountability and decision making.

The findings and the paper point to the need for further grounded research which is situated in localities and can examine the ways in which local state agencies have experienced the processes of change and dislocation.

It illustrates a number of examples of innovation at a local level which invite an examination of the replication in other neighbourhoods.

The paper draws upon the direct experience of local community facilitators and explores ways in which they can influence change.

This paper is rooted in practitioner experience of working within the non‐profit sector. It is both underpinned by Master’s level research and built on as part of an on‐going sense‐making process for the author in terms of her doctoral research. Focusing on a specific part of the sector – local development agencies, explores how personal theories emerge and the rules of thumb chief executives of such agencies use to develop their practice. This paper draws on fieldwork involving interviews with 20 chief executives and considers the roles of chief executives in relation to learning and development needs. As such, this is not a search for “truth” or for blueprints for managers, but represents a concern for and interest in how people – “puzzled” individuals who have to deal with ambiguous situations day‐by‐day – juggle multiple realities, and what informs their (thinking and) actions.

Corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) and its themes have taken root across the globe in the last 25 years. Corporations have generally responded by either embracing CSR as an important tool for productivity and value‐creation or by adapting to the changed and changing business environment caused by CSR. The third sector has a complex set of relationships with CSR, at times exhibiting tension about the changing role of corporations as a result of CSR. This paper seeks to show how conceptions of the value of CSR by corporations and third sector (CTS) organisations affect the nature and outcome of interactions between them.

The paper provides a framework to assist in explicating the standpoint of an entity and its likely engagement with others in relation to CSR. The framework is used to compared CSR motivations across CTS organisations in order to show where those motivations and orientations are compatible or in conflict.

The paper finds that CTS organisations may be able to better predict the likelihood of success before engaging with a partner.

The frameworks identified will provide a basis for further research in relation to the pre‐engagement phase of corporate and third sector organisations partners.

The paper will help practitioners and corporations engaging in CSR and those in the third sector seeking engagement to find mutually beneficial grounds for a sustainable relationship.

There is growing concern among those who need to manage the relationship to find better terms of engagement. However, ground is largely unexplored.

This article highlights the value of close co‐ operation and understanding between those inthe public, private and voluntary sectors who have the responsibility for planning and responding to major incidents. Multi‐agency response and co‐operation can be improved through joint planning and exercises which serve to validate plans, enable staff to familiarise themselves with the arrangements and assist in training. The whole plan or just part of it may be exercised according to need, and may involve participation by one or more agencies. It has to be decided who needs to be exercised and which type of exercise is appropriate, for example paper feed, table‐top, communications‐simulated or live. When staging exercise, it is important to plan, conduct and supervise them in a way which will ensure maximum benefit to all participants, enhance response safely and enable weaknesses in the plans to be revealed and corrected.

Author considered the contradiction of Capitalism and its Solution, systemized the concept to newly define Ethics Management and social Responsibility whose various terminologies are used in Domestic and foreign country and compared, analyzed and considered global guideline, standard organization and global Evaluation Model of internationally‐performed Ethics Management on the basis of the concept of new Ethics Management.