新作坊

Social enterprise in China: driving forces, development patterns and legal framework

摘要：

Purpose – This paper seeks to address emerging practices of social enterprises (SEs) in China by exploring the institutional context, organisational features and legislative framework of this new phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on data drawn from secondary sources (laws and regulations, forum transcripts and news reports) and primary evidence (in‐depth study of six SE cases). Findings – The various kinds of SEs are highly diversified in terms of social mission, organisational nature, legal form, and operational pattern; the institutional context is underdeveloped, providing growing but still limited financial, intellectual, technical, and human resources; although it allows increasing space for diversified development dynamics of SEs, the legislative system regulating SEs is still flawed in several vital ways. Research limitations/implications – This paper relies heavily on qualitative research methods to make a preliminary assessment of the development of China's SEs. Neither primary nor secondary data sources collected for this paper can be used to draw any general conclusion of statistical significance. Originality/value – The paper sheds light on the overall landscape of the recent development of SEs in China, providing a descriptive and normative foundation for cross‐country comparative studies and quantitative, explanatory analysis.