Birkbeck / IVAR seminar - 4th February 2010. Social entrepreneurship, Social enterprise.
Seminar 2 - Thursday 4th February 2010
Social entrepreneurship, social enterprise - examining evidence from recent research in the field.
Roger Spear & Dr Mike Aiken
Roger Spear - Examining recent evidence on social entrepreneurship
This presentation begins by reviewing the different conceptual approaches to social entrepreneurship in the USA and Europe. It then briefly indicates how these relate to approaches to social enterprise and offers a summary of published results from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor programme on social entrepreneurship in the UK. Preliminary findings of research conducted in 2009 as part of that work, focusing in particular on Denmark and UK, will also be examined. Some of the important issues about the evidence on social entrepreneurship issues will then be highlighted.
Dr Mike Aiken - The role of asset management and ownership in social enterprise activity: emerging evidence from the field.
The ownership and management of physical assets has often been associated with social enterprise activity. Recent policy trends, particularly since the Quirk Review and the developing asset transfer process, have brought these ideas closer to the centre stage for policy makers and practitioners in both public and
third sectors. This presentation briefly examines what may be understood as an asset and the range of views on what they can offer organisations and communities. The evidence base on asset ownership and management is considered along with some of the emerging challenges and dilemmas in the field.
Roger Spear is founder member and vice-president of EMES research network on social enterprise. He teaches organisational systems and research methods at the Open University. He is also a visiting professor at Roskilde University, Copenhagen, Denmark, on the Masters in Social Entrepreneurship. His most recent research projects include: Governance and Social Enterprise; an EC Peer Review of the social economy in Belgium; and an OECD project on the social economy in Korea.
Mike Aiken is Head of Research at IVAR where he is responsible for the overallmanagement of the research function. Since 2006 he has researched and coordinatedroles a range of IVAR projects including: the advocacy role of multipurpose community organisations, success factors in compacts, the representation function of third sector organisations, and a ‘real time’ evaluation of the Community Alliance partnership. He is currently engaged in the research on the community ownership and management of assets funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.