Business support for social enterprises : findings from a longitudinal study.

Social Enterprises (SEs) operate in almost every industry in the UK, from health and social care to renewable energy, from retail to recycling, from employment to sport, from housing to education. Amongst the most well known examples are Traidcraft, the Eden Project, Big Issue and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurants, but these represent only a small fraction of the sector. As with all businesses, SEs compete to deliver goods and services but profits are reinvested for social or environmental purposes, in the business or in the community, rather than for the benefit of shareholders and owners. SE activity itself usually takes account of additional factors in the way business is done, with many pursuing gains on a double or triple bottom line, seeking and measuring social responsibility and environmental sustainability, as well as earnings