This book explores social innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Focusing on selected social enterprises and processes, it addresses the question of "why China?", not in terms of military, economic or political ambitions, but in the terms of social innovation and welfare policies. The analyses range from detailed ethnography to discussions of broad global trends. Despite vastly improved social conditions in the country, there are still unresolved issues that social enterprises address. The study elaborates on the complexities involved in their positioning between the state and their beneficiaries. Adding to the complexity is China’s dual system of circulation and the moral economy of ethnic minorities. The theoretical foundation of the study is the Durkheimian concept of the social contract. Its content is viewed as comprised of Maussian total social facts or guanxi, a similar Chinese framing, operationalised to particular socio-cultural configurations. The empirical cases document how social enterprises reposition elements in the various configurations in order to mobilise resources from their stakeholders. The book concludes that the discursive topology is altered in the process and the social contract is renewed in culturally meaningful, if paradoxical, ways. This book will be of interest to researchers, students and academics in the fields of business and social entrepreneurship, especially to those with a particular interest in the Chinese case.
This book incorporates theoretical framework and management cases in discussions on social enterprise in China. The authors look to address two fundamental questions about social enterprises in China that have been very controversial over the years. First, what is social enterprise? This book proposes a framework that defines Chinese social enterprises based on social entrepreneurship, and includes ten case studies for justification. Second, who are well-performed social enterprises with financial viability and proved social impact? The book describes in detail some of the leading social enterprises in China. It is aimed at a wide target audience. Practitioners will learn experience and lessons from the case studies. Academics can use the cases in different teaching contexts, and gain research inspirations from our framework and case studies. Policy makers, accreditation agencies, professional service providers, and institutional investors will learn to identify and evaluate promising social enterprises.
Social entrepreneurship, a concept that integrates business strategies with achieving social goals, is gaining traction in China. However, it is a distinctly Chinese variant of an approach exported by Western entrepreneurs. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the Chinese social enterprise by identifying China's socioeconomic and political forces that create the unique environment in which this trent is taking root. By examining how these factors are changing in China's progressively more market economy, I conclude that key characteristics of the Chinese social enterprise are also shifting in response - moving froma civil society-originated model to a market-based social enterprise model. Most actors in this sector maintain a loose definition of "social enterprise" to accommodate their untethered developmetn in an environment with minimal institutional support. This paper relies heavily on qualitative primary research collected in Shanghai, China, recently published primary-source reports, and secondary resources. Advancing the current understanding of how context influences the development of the social enterprise sector, this thesis challenges the conventional wisdom that suggests Chinese social enterprises are defined by their third secotr origins. Instead, incubators' and social entrepreneurs' increasingly flexible and market-leaning criteria reflects the current shift of the Chinese social enteprise moveing futher away from the social sphere and closer to the market sector.
This book offers the first exploration into the development of social enterprises in the Greater China region, consisting of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China. By drawing on the research and experience of over a dozen scholars and practitioners from across the area, it offers a picture of how a strong State can play an important role as a catalyst in developing the social entrepreneurship sector, particularly by legitimizing it. It delves into the role and impact of institutions and policy on the development of social enterprises, and explains how micro and macro factors might interact in influencing social entrepreneurship. Structured in two parts – policy and cases – it reveals the historical development of the Social enterprises sector in the Chinese context and then illustrates this using cases studies. Providing an alternative view of social entrepreneurship by highlighting the importance of context in this new sector, the book questions whether or not social entrepreneurship is preferable to more conventional models of development. Sparking new interest and offering fresh insight into social entrepreneurship in the Greater China region, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Business Studies and Sociology.
In the absence of a widely accepted and common definition of social enterprise (SE), a large research project, the "International Comparative Social Enterprise Models" (ICSEM) Project, was carried out over a five-year period; it involved more than 200 researchers from 55 countries and relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the SE phenomenon. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, thus resulting in an analysis encompassing a wide diversity of social enterprises, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major SE models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. These SE models reveal or confirm an overall trend towards new ways of sharing the responsibility for the common good in today’s economies and societies. We tend to consider as good news the fact that social enterprises actually stem from all parts of the economy. Indeed, societies are facing many complex challenges at all levels, from the local to the global level. The diversity and internal variety of SE models are a sign of a broadly shared willingness to develop appropriate—although sometimes embryonic—responses to these challenges, on the basis of innovative economic/business models driven by a social mission. In spite of their weaknesses, social enterprises may be seen as advocates for and vehicles of the general interest across the whole economy. Of course, the debate about privatisation, deregulation and globalised market competition—all factors that may hinder efforts in the search for the common good–has to be addressed as well. The first of a series of four ICSEM books, Social Enterprise in Asia will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and other categories of people who want to acquire a broad understanding of the phenomena of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as they emerge and develop across the world.
This book offers the first exploration into the development of social enterprises in the Greater China region, consisting of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China. By drawing on the research and experience of over a dozen scholars and practitioners from across the area, it offers a picture of how a strong State can play an important role as a catalyst in developing the social entrepreneurship sector, particularly by legitimizing it. It delves into the role and impact of institutions and policy on the development of social enterprises, and explains how micro and macro factors might interact in influencing social entrepreneurship. Structured in two parts – policy and cases – it reveals the historical development of the Social enterprises sector in the Chinese context and then illustrates this using cases studies. Providing an alternative view of social entrepreneurship by highlighting the importance of context in this new sector, the book questions whether or not social entrepreneurship is preferable to more conventional models of development. Sparking new interest and offering fresh insight into social entrepreneurship in the Greater China region, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Business Studies and Sociology.
This open-access book brings together international experts who shed new light on the status of social enterprises, benefit corporations and other purpose-driven companies. The respective chapters take a multidisciplinary approach (combining law, philosophy, history, sociology and economics) and provide valuable insights on fostering social entrepreneurship and advancing the common good. In recent years, we have witnessed a significant shift of how business activities are conducted, mainly through the rise of social enterprises. In an effort to target social problems at their roots, social entrepreneurs create organizations that bring transformative social changes by considering, among others, ethical, social, and environmental factors. A variety of social enterprise models are emerging internationally and are proving their vitality and importance. But what does the term “social enterprise” mean? What are its roots? And how does it work in practice within the legal framework of any country? This handbook attempts to answer these questions from a theoretical, historical, and comparative perspective, bringing together 44 contributions written by 71 expert researchers and practitioners in this field. The first part provides an overview of the social enterprise movement, its evolution, and the different forms entities can take to meet global challenges, overcoming the limits of what governments and states can do. The second part focuses on the emergence of benefit corporations and the growing importance of sustainability and societal values, while also analyzing their different legal forms and adaptation to their regulatory environment. In turn, the last part presents the status quo of purpose-driven companies in 36 developed and emerging economies worldwide. This handbook offers food for thought and guidance for everyone interested in this field. It will benefit practitioners and decision-makers involved in social and community organizations, as well as in international development and, more generally speaking, social sciences and economics.
The Chinese economy has grown faster for a longer period than any other economy in the world. It is now the second, and will soon become the largest, global economy. This is an astonishing transformation of a country that in the late 1970s was one of the poorest in Asia. Central to this economic miracle has been the emergence of a private sector of entrepreneurs who have started and grown businesses of all sizes and types. This book explores these wealth creators and builders of China’s new economy, and offers guidance on the best ways to work with China’s entrepreneurs and their growing businesses. Entrepreneurship in China looks at the dynamic and changing nature of entrepreneurship, and the need for entrepreneurs to refine, adapt and evolve their approaches within an uncertain, fast-changing and volatile environment. This book examines the distinctive and particular context of China for entrepreneurs, and offers insights into how entrepreneurship has emerged as the driver of China’s economy. This book will benefit business people, policy makers and researchers seeking to understand Chinese entrepreneurship and offers guidance to practitioners interested in working with private Chinese businesses.
‘Shaping Social Enterprise’ helps researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and international development actors better understand various institutional paths of social enterprise development and where institutional strengths and weaknesses may be located.
The purpose of this volume is to explore sustainable innovation and “fair development” in China. It examines various existing problems currently faced in China, such as food safety, education, healthcare, employment, housing, the environment and censorship, among others, and provides different perspectives in relation to fair development. Topics covered include coordinated governance, energy consumption and policy, dynamic sustainability, green marketing, and people-oriented education. While the focus of the volume is on China, the research process and structure presented can also be used to explore fair development in other emerging economies. Fair development is a framework that includes such principles as sustainability, with particular respect to the implications for human development in the context of available opportunities, resources, and outputs. China, the world’s second largest economy, continues to face several challenges when pursuing sustainable development, such as unbalanced growth pressure in the central and western regions and rural areas of China, the fragility of the natural environment, and resource constraints and structural problems in economic and social development. It is a crucial mission for China to sustain economic growth without sacrificing environmental sustainability or human rights. For example, there is increasing pressure on China to reduce its dependence on fossil energy. Therefore, innovations in technologies, management, and even systems are critical to drive a transition to low-carbon energy, which will be a long-term process. Featuring contributions from a diverse group of researchers from multiple disciplines, this volume provides a comprehensive collection of perspectives on economic, political, and social development in China.
Diploma Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, Tongji University, language: English, abstract: Entrepreneurship in China developed itself in the early nighties, when the influence of the past and regulations of the government became lower. What is interesting to study is how entrepreneurship works in China, and what are new forms of entrepreneurship, that follow the evolution of the growth of the society. New policies and regulations were part of the change. The most influential of these was “several policy recommendations on the encouragement and promotion of small businesses” (State Economic Commission of the State Council in July 2000). The country is then facing the arrival of a new trend: Social entrepreneurship. Coming from Europe, this consists in doing business in a way that creates value for all actors involved and more precisely a positive impact to the society. Moreover, the definition of social entrepreneurship is not the same for all actors, and this creates difficulties to quantity the number of companies that can be referenced as social enterprise. In order to communicate on their actions, those companies must consider the online market. More than in Europe, Chinese consumers are buying online, and talk and exchange a lot on online communities such as Taobao, Baidu, Ququ. This aspect of the market is important for companies to understand how to communicate with customers but also can influence the way they do business. Then social enterprises’ projects can be support by more important one, driven by bigger companies. This is where Corporate Social Responsibility intervenes. It concerns action driven by influential companies that have some assets and decide to dedicate a part of their activity to projects that can have a positive impact on society. In China, China Mobile, the first “supplier” of mobile phone or State Grid, the first”” of electricity are part of it. There initiatives can go from giving free access to their services in case of urgent matters (ex. Sichuan earthquake) or simply being part of the empowerment of life of millions of people. This is for example the case of Total linked to the university of TONGJI in Shanghai, that supports some projects and give access to fund to students. To conclude Social entrepreneurship is a growing and challenging issue in China and will probably be more well-known in the near future thanks to support of important companies and the government.
Written by scholars from both inside and outside China, this wide-ranging collection of essays explores the complexity of the relationship between governance and civil society by combining theoretical exploration and empirical case studies based on the governance practice in China.
