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Social enterprises and social markets: models and new trends

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Abstract

Strengthening of the “disinterested” is key in the current economic situation (Bourdieu 1986). It can provide new values and ways of managing the markets and enterprise organizations; social enterprises are emerging as instruments to make this possible. This work studies the different traditions and analyzes social enterprises and social entrepreneurs, with particular attention to Spain. It also examines trends deriving from the new emerging models, first making an approximation of social markets: a market experience based on building a production, distribution, financing, and responsible consumption network that overcomes the limits of individual companies, engaging all the market’s economic agents. Finally, the risks and opportunities that these models present for a supportive and Social Economy are analyzed.

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Notes

  1. See the publications of the ETNOR Foundation about ethics in businesses.

  2. Throughout 2011, many of the decisions of the EU countries attempted to "calm the financial markets", in the words of politicians. During this period, other relevant decisions have been subject to the conditions required by the rating agencies in order to remunerate capital needs.

  3. “Otra Economía” is the title of the journal “Revista Latinoamericana de Economía Social y Solidaria” published by the Latin American Network of Research on Social and Solidarity Economy (RILESS). More info: http://www.unisinos.br/revistas/index.php/otraeconomia.

  4. Some institutions and authors differentiate between Social Economy and Solidarity Economy (Garcia i Jane 2010). In this article, we use the term Social Economy as a general concept that includes the Solidarity Economy.

  5. The increase Social Economy experiences in Latin America and Eastern Europe, the revitalization of social enterprises in Europe at the dawn of the latest EU directives, the strengthen of the social sector in Asia, as well as the increase of the support from the academic to this reality are examples of this.

  6. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/promoting-entrepreneurship/social-economy/.

  7. These social enterprises cases have been selected as relevant experiences by EMES at the 3rd Conference of Social Enterprises (Roskilde, Denmark, 2011).

  8. EMES is a research network of established university research centres and individual researchers whose goal is to gradually build up a European corpus of theoretical and empirical knowledge, pluralistic in disciplines and methodology, around “Third Sector” issues. More info at:http://www.emes.net/index.php?id=7.

  9. From the first EMES research project, as introduced by Defourny (2001).

  10. See Marcuello (2007).

  11. Nogales (2011) analyzes three social enterprises in the culture sector: the Italian social cooperative Olinda, the Danish social enterprises Kulturkælderen, and the Spanish work integration enterprises Arte de mis Manos.

  12. See also EMES Working Papers Series for data around Europe (http://www.emes.net/index.php?id=49).

  13. UN Report, “El País” (6 Augost 2011).

  14. RESCOOP.eu is the federation of groups and cooperatives of citizens for renewable energy in Europe.

  15. Solidarius (http://www.solidarius.com.br/) is a self-managed initiative of Solidarity Economy with no-profit goals. The mission of this initiative is to collaborate in the dissemination and the consolidation of social economy in all countries, promoting the organization of collaborative networks, supporting people, projects, networks, communities and governments, through services of education, consulting, research and development, innovation and methodological provision of information technology.

  16. Ashoka Foundation is supporting this second type of social entrepreneurs, and they incentive those characteristics related to them.

  17. Law 27/1999, 16 of July, on Cooperative Act, art. 106.

  18. More info: http://www.economiasolidaria.org.

  19. An example of this is the prize JEI Emprendedores Sociales in Spain (JEI Social Entrepreneurs), which is promoted by the traditional capitalist support structures.

  20. For a more detailed review about Work Integration Social Enterprises in Spain, see Marcuello et al. (2008).

  21. Confederación Española de la Economía Social (Spanish Confederation of Social Economy) (http://www.cepes.org).

  22. RD 27/2000 of January 14, for the establishment of exceptional alternative measures to fulfill the ratio of 2% for disabled workers in companies with 50 or more workers.

  23. Adapted from Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, Harvard Business School, 2001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. GESES Research Group, Universidad de Zaragoza (UZ), Saragossa, Spain

    Millán Díaz-Foncea & Carmen Marcuello

  2. Facultad de Economía y Empresa (Campus Paraíso), Departamento de Dirección y Organización de Empresas, Ps. Gran Via 2, 4ª Planta, Zaragoza, Spain

    Millán Díaz-Foncea & Carmen Marcuello

Authors
  1. Millán Díaz-Foncea
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  2. Carmen Marcuello
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Correspondence to Carmen Marcuello.

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This article was produced in the context of project “GESES-S64 of the Aragón Goverment”.

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Díaz-Foncea, M., Marcuello, C. Social enterprises and social markets: models and new trends. Serv Bus 6, 61–83 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-011-0132-8

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