The Third Sector, Social Enterprise and Public Service Delivery

by Madeline Powell (Editor), Frances Stokes Berry (Editor)

Overview

Social enterprises are businesses with primarily social or environmental purposes designed to create value for the clients of the business, and to reinvest surpluses into the business or community. They serve as social innovation laboratories, and frequently collaborate with governments or other nonprofits to serve their communities and clientele.

The chapters in this book discuss the development and flourishing of social enterprises in eight countries around the world, including China, India, Great Britain, the United States and the Czech Republic. Specifically, the authors cover how social enterprises are managed, how they operate with their national and local governments, and the contributions they are making to service delivery and social innovation. Different theoretical lenses are used to assess the roles that social enterprises play in the different countries, and how they relate both to the nonprofit world and their governments.

This book will appeal to all students, researchers and scholars who focus on the third sector, social economy, public policy and social enterprise, as well as to intellectual social enterprise leaders and practitioners. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Public Management Review.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032616421
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/30/2025
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Madeline Powell is Lecturer of Marketing in the School for Business and Society at the University of York, UK. She is on the editorial board for public management review and is an associate editor for the social enterprise journal. Her research specializes in social enterprises, public management and marketing.

Frances Stokes Berry is Professor of Public Administration and Askew Eminent Scholar Chair at Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University, USA. She is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and has served as President of the Network of Associated Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration; and the Public Management Research Association. Her expertise is in public policy, policy and management innovation and diffusion, programme evaluation, strategic and performance management, and state policy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Research insights into the third sector, social enterprise and public service delivery 1.Responding to failure: the promise of market mending for social enterprise 2. Local government as a catalyst for promoting social enterprise 3. To measure or not to measure?An empirical investigation of social impact measurement in UK social enterprises 4. Examining the impact of control and ownership on social enterprises’ public value creation using integrative publicness theory 5. Institutional intermediaries as legitimizing agents for social enterprise in China and India 6. Revenue diversification or revenue concentration? Impact on financial health of social enterprises 7. The evolutionary trajectory of social enterprises in the Czech Republic and Slovakia