∷ Beijing Yifang Foundation → Social enterprise [Research] → 2020
• Research on the Evolution, Growth, Performance and Transformation Mechanism of Social Enterprises
Partner Organization: Shanghai University Of Engineering Science
Project Duration: Jul 2020 - Jul 2022
Project Status: Going on
Social enterprises are globally accepted as an innovative solution to social development issues. It has played an important role in driving economic growth, reducing income inequality and unemployment. In China, the development of social enterprises was at its infancy and faced many challenges like shortage of funds, lack of talent and outdated organizational structures etc., which hampered the growth of the industry. With the objective of transforming China’s situation, understanding the origins of social enterprises, their growth, how to sustain them and their primary function was an interesting and challenging theoretical question that this research project wanted to answer.
Despite drawing from overseas research and experience, it cannot be compared to learning from local experiences. There was a pressing need to develop social enterprise development theories that were unique to China. The theme of this research project was “The Growth of Social Enterprises”, specifically in this order: Growth Characteristics Growth Path Growth Performance. The project outlined the different growth paths and studied the key characteristics of social enterprises. With this information, developed an integrated model illustrating the internal mechanism of influencing factors that affect the performance of social enterprises. The team applied social capital, resource pooling, organizational and institutional theory at three levels – individual, organization, and system – to explain the key factors affecting the growth of social enterprises. The use of qualitative and quantitative research methods made it possible to uncover the underlying logic, theory, and mechanism.
The research outcomes not only supplemented existing Western-centric social enterprise growth theories but also paved the way for developmental strategies and provide the basis and reference for local governments to formulate appropriate policies.