Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Social Enterprise Journal, Volume 10, Issue 2
I am delighted to introduce to you the Social Enterprise Journal’s second edition of 2014 published by Emerald publishers. First, I would like to thank the journal board, the selected reviewers and of course the authors for the papers enclosed.
The first paper by Dr Pathak Pathik (Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Southampton, UK) is titled “Social return on investment: three technical challenges”. This paper explores some of the technical challenges and misconceptions involved in measuring social return on investment. The second paper by Dr Lucy Frith (Department of Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK) titled “Social enterprises, health care provision and ethical capital” looks at the policy changes that have led to social enterprises becoming an important part of recent UK health policy and to what extent can social enterprises bolster the ethical values of health care.
The third paper by Laura Ann Scheiber (Columbia University, New York, USA) titled “Social capital and the target population” investigates the nature of the social capital that played a role in the leaders’ social entrepreneurial trajectories, particularly during the initial conceptualization and implementation stages. This social angle is a contrast to earlier research on social entrepreneurs that focused on individual attributes, suggesting that entrepreneurs are “born” with innate qualities such as charisma, drive and passion that are conducive to social innovation. Such a perspective implies that social entrepreneurship cannot be learned. This study challenges the emphasis on individuals by examining social entrepreneurs from a sociological perspective.
Our fourth paper by Ifigeneia Douvitsa (Department of Law, Democritus University of Thrace) and Demosthenis Kassavetis (Assistant Professor of Sociology of Law, Department of Law, Democritus University of Thrace) titled “Cooperatives: an alternative to water privatization in Greece” investigates the organization of water cooperatives in Greece for the first time, as promoted by a spontaneous social mobilization called Initiative 136. The above attempt appears as an alternative proposition against the state-driven full privatization.
Our final paper by Cynthia Van Hulle and Nico Dewaelheyns (University of Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business, Accountancy, Finance and Insurance) is titled “Why do private non-profit organizations provide information on the Internet?” This paper measures information provision on the Internet by private non-profit organizations and provides insight in underlying drivers.
The Social Enterprise Journal will also support the 6th International Social Innovation Research Conference from September 1st to 4th, 2014 at the University of Northampton. We look forward to article submissions from this conference.
Bob Doherty
