Developing an understanding of the role of social enterprise on health outcome

It has been suggested that social enterprises could offer solutions for poverty reduction, empowerment, and solving social problems independently and sustainably, and therefore could play a significant role as providers of health care. Social enterprises are businesses that have the objective of fulfilling a social purpose, with profits reinvested in the company and used for the benefit of the wider community. However, there is little evidence of the role of social enterprise models on the health status of individuals and the community as a whole, and with no evaluation of social enterprise models as an alternative mechanism for health care delivery. Research is under-way to develop a conceptual framework to comprehend the impacts of social enterprise on various health outcomes e.g. self efficacy, self esteem, income and satisfaction with life, which explore the effectiveness of social enterprise on general well-being. Our conceptual framework will be tested in two different social enterprises in Bangladesh namely the Grameen Eye Hospital (charges patients on their ability to pay) and the New Entrepreneurs Project (those who have set up businesses such as cloth shops, scrap shops and tailors, that have created employment for the promoter, employment opportunities for others, provided services within the community and contributed to improvements in socio-economic status). A mixed methods approach can extend our understanding of how health and well-being are generated via social enterprise. This model can be generalised to Australian context, specifically for marginalized and disadvantaged communities such as refugees and inform policy makers and social investors in the important role that social enterprise can play