Mapping Social Entrepreneurship in Germany -- A Quantitative Analysis

38 Pages Posted: 9 Sep 2013

See all articles by Thomas Scheuerle

Thomas Scheuerle

Heidelberg University - Center for Social Investement (CSI)

Björn Schmitz

Heidelberg University - Center for Social Investement (CSI); Phil!omondo

Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl

European Center for Social Finance

Rieke Schuees

Zeppelin University

Saskia Richter

University of Hildesheim

Date Written: August 1, 2013

Abstract

In this paper we present data from a quantitative online survey among 244 social enterprises in Germany. Social entrepreneurship research is often criticized for a lack of quantitative approaches, partly due to a still missing consent on definition criteria. Therefore we depart from a discussion of definition criteria that are related to the major schools of thought in the field – earned income, innovativeness, and democratic governance – and of sampling techniques that have been applied in previous quantitative studies. Building on a bottom up sampling approach, we found for example that most social enterprises in our study are rather young and small in terms of income and employees. Nevertheless, there are also mature organizations considerably larger in size. We also found that social enterprises rely on a variety of income streams. The share of organizations with a formal advisory board in their governance structure was high for very young as well as for older organizations. Although most organizations have a regional scope, scaling endeavors were planned by most organizations. We discuss our results within the context of German welfare structures and provide some conclusions on the issue of quantitative studies of social entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Social enterprises, social entrepreneurship, mapping, structural data, governance, scaling, innovation, methodology, definition criteria

JEL Classification: M13, M14

Suggested Citation

Scheuerle, Thomas and Schmitz, Björn and Schmitz, Björn and Spiess-Knafl, Wolfgang and Schuees, Rieke and Richter, Saskia, Mapping Social Entrepreneurship in Germany -- A Quantitative Analysis (August 1, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2322748 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2322748

Thomas Scheuerle (Contact Author)

Heidelberg University - Center for Social Investement (CSI) ( email )

Heidelberg
Germany

Björn Schmitz

Heidelberg University - Center for Social Investement (CSI) ( email )

Heidelberg
Germany

Phil!omondo ( email )

Bruchhäuser Weg 2.1
Heidelberg, 69124
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://philiomondo.de

Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl

European Center for Social Finance ( email )

Munich
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.ecsocfin.com

Rieke Schuees

Zeppelin University ( email )

Am Seemooser Horn 20
Friedrichshafen, Lake Constance 88045
Germany

Saskia Richter

University of Hildesheim ( email )

Marienburger Platz 22
Hildesheim, 31141
Germany

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