The Contribution of the Social Enterprise Sector to the UK Economy

Abstract

Social enterprises (SEs) contribute significantly to the UK economy. Yet, their collective contributions are a hidden feat. This paper presents the development, scale and scope of these enterprises, followed by a guide to inform opportunities for future research. This study is important because it presents a critical insight into the contribution of SEs from a market with the world’s first largest social investment wholesaler. This insight will improve systems and models designed to improve operations and performance of these organisations. This study adopts qualitative document analysis of secondary data, namely ‘The Future of Business: State of Social Enterprise Survey’ (2017), ‘Social Enterprise UK Impact Report’ (2018), ‘Northern Ireland Third Sector Report’ (2013), ‘Mapping the social business sector in Wales’ (2017) and ‘Social Enterprise Scotland’ (2017). Documents were analysed using the Nvivo software, through a content analysis approach. This study found that SEs have three forms of contributions: social, economic and environmental. Meanwhile, the areas that emerged for future research are diversity and inclusion, localism, financial performance, service-led sector, employment opportunities, waste management and environmental policies. Due to the nature of the secondary data used, the findings may not be generalisable for all regions. Therefore, future research should employ primary data while utilising a sufficiently large sample to capture the key events in the sector. This paper provides pertinent information for research bodies and policy makers who are interested in funding research in SEs and/or sustainable development studies, while providing novel insights into key areas of contributions: social, economic and environmental domains. Finally, the themes for future direction adds value to the conceptualisation of the SE sector.

Keywords: Social enterprise, Social economy, UK

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-20-03

Publication date:July 31^st 2019