Social enterprise in the economic upheaval

The Coalition conducted a survey of social enterprises in November to better understand their experiences and needs in the economic upheaval.

Thank you to all who took part, the information that you gave us has helped to inform our policy work to influence government and other decision makers to support social enterprises.

We found that:

• The experiences of social enterprises in the economic upheaval so far are diverse;
• Social enterprises strongly expect the social and environmental needs they address, to increase in the current economic climate;
• While social enterprises feel supported by their communities and the movement, there is an opportunity for government to support them more.

A summary of the findings can be downloaded here.

A full report will be available here shortly.

 

Social enterprise in the recession

Both economic conditions and government policy have changed a lot in the last three months. The UK is now officially in recession and a number of government initiatives have been launched, including a social enterprise summit between BERR and the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) - announced at Voice 09.

To continue to inform action to support social enterprises we need to know how these changes effect you.  Please let us know by responding to an updated shorter survey here.

 

Social Entrepreneurship in the UK - from Delta Economics. This new report is based on a five-year survey of entrepreneurs lead by Dr Rebecca Harding and can be downloaded here.

 

Social Enterprises: Diversity and Dynamics, Contexts and Contributions - by Professor Ken Peattie and Dr Adrian Morley of the BRASS centre, Cardiff University.

This new research publication examines the state of research into social enterprise so far and was commissioned by the Coalition and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It was launched at the 5^th annual Social Enterprise Research Conference at London's South Bank University and can be downloaded here.