Social Enterprise Watch

1) A new article by Meng Zhao discusses the emergence of social enterprise in China:

The concept of social enterprise is now emerging in China. But it is not yet widely known to the general public or regularly covered by mainstream media. The Chinese government is still trying to understand the new phenomenon and formulate policies toward it. It is choosing neither to promote nor to restrict the discussion and practice of social enterprises, as opposed to the nonprofit sector, which is the subject of significant administrative focus. 

. . . 

Businesspeople and government authorities are still suspicious of the nonprofit sector and, laterally, social enterprises. Ding Kaijie, the head of the social innovation research division at the CCCP’s Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, explains: “The reality is that NPOs have low accountability and social trust. In the course of NPO development in China, a few bad cases raised great concerns among people and government agencies. If NPOs were commercialized, we could hardly tell them apart from for-profit businesses. There would be doubt about their commitments to social good.... Thus some officials think that the commercialization of NPOs is a mistake.”

2) This short piece by Narda R. Quigley examines the motivation of social entrepreneurs vs. commercial entrepreneurs: 

. . . [S]ocial entrepreneurs would be focused more on setting high goals when it came to having an impact on people and communities. Commercial entrepreneurs, on the other hand, would likely be focused more on goals reflecting financial growth.

3) Check out the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship (some articles are "free access").

4) I wrote this syllabus.