Economic Sustainability and Social Innovation in Social Enterprises-The Dual Nature of Hybrid Organizations

Self-regulated market vs self-protection of society As China is memorizing its 30th anniversary of economic reform (1978-2008), developed countries are encountering the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. A lot of lessons for the successes and failures of market economies can be learnt by China. These lessons also remind us about Polanyi’s classic book The Great Transformation (Polanyi, 1944/2001). It told us that free market economy is never self-regulated, it is always a political project as manipulated by the states. It started not until late 18th century and is a process in which mankind, land, natural resources all being transformed into fictitious commodities. Markets that are originally embedded in social relationships now become disembedded. Prices become the single rule governing economic activities and inevitably give rise to financial crisises. Consequently, self-protection movements of the society develop, in hoping to restore the human rather than commodity nature of material lives. For Polanyi again, markets are not evil in themselves, state regulations are not omnipotent either. His brings our attention to the long history of mankind, wher