Social Enterprise In Australia: Types And Examples

Definition of Social Enterprise

Write an Article about a Social Enterprise should discuss about ethics and sustainability theory, primary data

Social enterprise is a form of organisation, which applies various commercial strategies to maximise its improvements in social, financial and environmental well-being. A social enterprise can be of two types, viz., non-profit or for-profit and it can take the form of a mutual, co-operative organisation (Tracey and Phillips 2016). Some other social organisation can also take the form of a benefit corporation, a charity organisation or a social business where each of them follows both social goals and business goals. Consequently, social goals have forced those enterprises to set their objectives accordingly and this in turn has helped to differentiate them from other corporations or organisations (Becker, Kunze and Vancea 2017). Thus, the chief purpose of a social enterprise is to encourage, promote and make social changes.

Firms can be divided into various sections, which are, not-for profit, varieties of social enterprise, business, which “do good” and business.

Hence, according to their activities, it can be said that social enterprises have generated a hybrid market worldwide based on their investment that helps to generate new forms of innovation, entrepreneurship, capital and innovation (Battilana, Sengul, Pache and Model 2015). Consequently, those emerging sectors can deliver improved social, economic and environmental outcomes, increasing innovation in public service provision and community. Moreover, those business entities have generated jobs and various training opportunities for young people and consequently they have developed their own solutions to help local economies positively (Molecke and Pinkse 2017). However, through business activities, those organisations have generated huge engagement between business and community sectors.

Therefore, social enterprises can be of various forms while industries under which they operate are also many with different types. Hence, in Australia, defining a social enterprise is always very challenging (Miles, Verreynne and Luke 2014). However, Social Traders along with the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS) has recognised and mapped this specified social organisation sector for the first time in 2009 at Queensland University of Technology (Mason 2017). Those institutions have identified this sector based on its scope, reasons for trading, variety of forms along with financial dimensions, communities and individuals whom those enterprises want to provide benefits (Douglas 2015). Under guidance of Associate Professor Jo Barraket, Finding Australia’s Social Enterprise Sector (FASES) has produced its first report in 2010  and after that, this report has been downloaded more than 1500 times and also have played significant role to develop this specified sector of Australia through providing supports (Barraket et al.2017). Hence, the research paper has incorporated various workshops for exploring and testing about activities of managers, relative policy makers and researchers of this social enterprise through implementing the concept “social enterprise”. In this context, social enterprises can be described an economic, cultural, social or environmental mission consisting with a community or public benefit (Bromley and Meyer 2017). Moreover, those enterprises trade to meet the terms of their mission and to receive a substantial portion of income from this trade. Those organisations reinvest their major portion of surplus and profit for fulfilling their mission.

Types of Social Enterprises in Australia

Therefore, according to the analysis report of FASES in 2016, around 20000 social enterprises have operated their business across all industry sectors among which 73% are small business organisations while 23% are medium and 4% are large entities. However, those sectors do not perform within the same industry, for instance, 68% social entities operate their business in the services sectors among which 23% are in healthcare and 24% are in retail (Csi.edu.au. 2018). In this context, it can also be mentioned that purpose of those social organisations are also different. In Australia, the chief purpose of almost 34% organisations is to generate meaningful employment opportunities for some special people, who belong from special groups (Hugo, Isenring, Sinclair and Agarwal 2018). In this context, Hireup website, a start-up company of this country, can be referred as an example. This site provides opportunities to people with disabilities to find qualified caretakers in the local areas with common interests (Hireup. 2018). On the other side, 34% organisations have developed new solutions related to socio-economical, cultural or environmental problems. In Brisbane, a non-for-profit restaurant has provided trainings to female African refugees for providing future security through generating employment. There are some other enterprises in this country for supporting economically disadvantaged women (Brown et al.2017). Hence, 35% organisations have targeted to provide benefits to those people, who have disabilities while 33% entities have target young people to provide jobs and 28% have targeted to employed women, who have received social disadvantages due to migration.

Two siblings, named, Jordan and Laura O’Reilly have formed a website where people with disabilities can find jobs according to their requirements through creating a profile using, which they can search, caregivers within their local areas. Those caregivers send private messages to qualified candidates for booking them and for paying them for their services. There are many people, who have started to use this app for getting better caregiver for their family members or loved ones (Hireup. 2018). They have faith that those caregivers with qualification can provide better services compare to an unskilled caretakers. However, the most important think that attracts people to use this app is that they can get caregivers from their local areas or surrounding areas and consequently they can trust on them. Moreover, each caregiver has their own profile in this Hireup where they have provided their detail information with photo. Hence, they can trace those people at any time.

Impact of Social Enterprise in Australia

In this context, another performance of this specified website can be described where the website has provided opportunities to cut costs for their users. The specified website comes under National Disability Insurance Scheme o Australia (NDIS) with $6 to $ 8 AUD hourly rate for providing one-on-one support (Thill 2015). This in turn has helped users of the website to save around $5 to $ 25 per hour for getting support. Based on a research, the owners of this concerned website have informed that the service has successfully saved around $60000 of their users in only one month. With the help of this amount, the owner can provide service of extra 1700 hours. Hence, this service has provided employment opportunities for those caregivers, who have earned special skills to take care people with disabilities.

There are some other social enterprises, which have provided employment opportunities to women, who have faced various restrictions or economical boundaries in Australia. This concept is also applicable for non-profit restaurant in Brisbane. This restaurant has provided trainings to female African refugees for getting employment in future. The restaurant, Mu’ooz has helped 140 women through providing trainings on cooking and hospitality program while among them 97% have secured their future employment (ABC News. 2018). The chief trainer, Saba Abraham, has also come in this country as a refugee and at present, she runs this enterprise, where she provides paid jobs with formal qualifications. Hence, the chief objective of this restaurant is to support disadvantages women, who do not have enough educational knowledge or basic knowledge in English. However, by applying their traditional cooking skills, those women have obtained jobs for support their lives. Therefore, by providing socio-economic independence, the restaurant has helped to reduce income inequality and gender discrimination. Workers of this restaurant have also provided various personal views where they have said that earning money in a foreign country without knowing their mother language properly had remained a big problem for them. However, after getting proper training and good reviews from customers, they have earned huge confidence. Moreover, the restaurant has contributed economic benefits in local areas. Most of the workers have experienced various negative phases in their early life. Their struggle has become great topic of discussion among visitors and customers. African trainees cook and serve their traditional cuisine to Australian customers and also have shared their stories with them. This in turn has helped to increase cross-cultural activities over there.

Examples of Social Enterprises in Australia

In Australia, there are some other social enterprises, which have formed for women with economical disabilities. Due to immigrations, the country has huge number of refugee people among which number of women is also very high. In this context, the Spice Exchange can be mentioned as well. Access Community Services in Brisbane have founded this social enterprise, which has helped migrant and refugee women to gain employment by cooking, making ginger breads, creating spice blends through getting knowledge and recipes based on their traditional recipes.

Conclusion:

Thus, the concept social enterprise has played significant role all over the world and especially in Australia. The county has obtained economic benefits from these enterprises as they have generated various employment opportunities. Moreover, various social enterprises have provided jobs to women, who have received economical disadvantages due to migration. Moreover, people with physical challenges and other disabilities have obtained caregivers from their local areas. There are also some other social enterprises, who have performed their activities based on some special economic, social, political or environmental context in this country. Those, the government have also provided benefits to them so that they can progress further as they have actually helped people without looking for extra profits. Hence, this concept is important to analyse further

References:

ABC News. 2018. Refugees volunteer to keep African restaurant open in Brisbane. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-12/refugees-volunteer-to-keep-african-restaurant-open-in-brisbane/6306496 [Accessed 19 May 2018].

Barraket, J., Douglas, H., Eversole, R., Mason, C., McNeill, J. and Morgan, B., 2017. Classifying social enterprise models in Australia. Social Enterprise Journal, 13(4), pp.345-361.

Battilana, J., Sengul, M., Pache, A.C. and Model, J., 2015. Harnessing productive tensions in hybrid organizations: The case of work integration social enterprises. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6), pp.1658-1685.

Becker, S., Kunze, C. and Vancea, M., 2017. Community energy and social entrepreneurship: Addressing purpose, organisation and embeddedness of renewable energy projects. Journal of Cleaner Production, 147, pp.25-36.

Bromley, P. and Meyer, J.W., 2017. “They are all organizations”: The cultural roots of blurring between the nonprofit, business, and government sectors. Administration & Society, 49(7), pp.939-966.

Brown, L., Osborne, K., Walker, R., Moskos, M., Isherwood, L., Patel, K., Baum, F. and King, D., 2017. The benefits of a life-first employment program for Indigenous Australian families: Implications for ‘Closing the Gap’. Journal of Social Inclusion, 8(1), pp.78-95.

Csi.edu.au. 2018. Finding Australia's Social Enterprise Sector: Final Report 2016. [online] Available at: https://www.csi.edu.au/research/project/finding-australias-social-enterprise-sector-final-report-2016/ [Accessed 18 May 2018].

Douglas, H., 2015. Embracing hybridity: a review of social entrepreneurship and enterprise in Australia and New Zealand. Third Sector Review, 21(1), p.5.

Hireup. 2018. About. [online] Available at: https://hireup.com.au/about/ [Accessed 19 May 2018].

Hugo, C., Isenring, E., Sinclair, D. and Agarwal, E., 2018. What does it cost to feed aged care residents in Australia?. Nutrition & Dietetics, 75(1), pp.6-10.

Mason, C., 2017. Social enterprise in Australia: The need for a social innovation ecosystem. AQ-Australian Quarterly, 88(3), p.25.

Miles, M.P., Verreynne, M.L. and Luke, B., 2014. Social enterprises and the performance advantages of a Vincentian marketing orientation. Journal of business ethics, 123(4), pp.549-556.

Molecke, G. and Pinkse, J., 2017. Accountability for social impact: A bricolage perspective on impact measurement in social enterprises. Journal of Business Venturing, 32(5), pp.550-568.

Thill, C., 2015. Listening for policy change: how the voices of disabled people shaped Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. Disability & Society, 30(1), pp.15-28.

Tracey, P. and Phillips, N., 2016. Managing the consequences of organizational stigmatization: Identity work in a social enterprise. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), pp.740-765.