Community Engagement: A Case Study Comparison of Social Enterprise and Corporation Strategies

Social Enterprises are organisations that exist to serve social objectives primary to seeking financial returns (Dacin, 2011). The economic rent obtained from their operations is reinvested back into the enterprise to pursue social missions. On the other hand, corporations are organisations that exist with the primary responsibility of increasing their shareholder’s value (Friedman, 1970). However, since the 1950s (Carroll, 1999) corporations have gradually awakened to considering the needs of the larger society in which they exist through corporate social responsibility. Therefore this study compares the systems and processes that social enterprises and corporations use to pursue social needs by engaging with the community. The relevance of this is that amidst a shrinking welfare state because of recurring economic crises, the public sector requires support from other sectors to serve needs of the greater society in which we exist (Sabeti, 2011). Hence, this research carries out an investigation of the approaches social entrepreneurs and corporations use in engaging with the community in order to identify which business entity implements strategies that benefit the community better. To conduct this research, this paper considers how social enterprises and corporations identify opportunities for which community initiatives to engage in by mainly looking at their motivations. In addition to this, the strategies that are implemented to mobilise resources and explore their identified opportunities are explored. In general, this research finds that different motivations drive social enterprises and corporations to pursue community initiatives. Additionally these motivations feed into the way they mobilise resources and exploit their realised opportunities. Mainly, this research identifies that the institutional structures of both these separate business entities play a significant role in dedicating the extent to which benefits accrue to the community