Improving the good in good organisations: How can the potential negative social impacts of social enterprises be better managed?

Social enterprises are organisations that aim to create sustainable solutions to social problems. They are often described as 'do good' organisations. These organisations play an important role in society, contributing to social welfare and social wellbeing, and they are a significant component of the economy. However, there is a myth (i.e. a false assumption) that social enterprises always and under all circumstances only have positive social impacts on society. In this PhD, it is argued that social enterprises – especially those that do not identify, mitigate or manage their potential impacts – are likely to have direct and indirect negative social impacts on those people who are affected by the activities of social enterprises, including target groups, host communities, and workers and volunteers. There has been evolution in the field of social enterprises, with new forms of social enterprise emerging, which is causing legal and definitional confusion as well as many problems in practice. An outcome of my PhD research is my classification that, in broad terms, there are: 'traditional social enterprises', i.e. those that are largely dependent on donations, make short-term plans and resemble non-governmental organisations to a certain extent; and 'new generation social enterprises', i.e. those that are sustainability-oriented, innovative and typically operate independent of donations. Four case studies of new generation social enterprises were conducted, two in the Netherlands and two in Turkey. In addition, interviews were conducted with six independent experts who were knowledgeable about the fields of social entrepreneurship and/or social impact assessment. The overarching research question of the PhD research was: How can the potential negative social impacts of social enterprises be better identified, mitigated and managed? The results of the research revealed that social enterprises can create negative impacts and that social enterprises should apply the principles of social impact assessment to manage and minimise their potential negative social impacts. The thesis argues that there should be an ISO-like standard specifically for the social enterprise sector. The thesis reviews a range of existing standards and makes recommendations for what should be included in a standard specifically for the social enterprise sector. Keywords: social entrepreneurship, social enterprises, new generation social enterprises (NGSEs), social impact assessment, social performance