The Social Enterprise Law Market

Abstract

During the last seven years, over thirty states have passed at least one social enterprise statute. These social enterprise statutes allow the formation of a plethora of new entity types, including low-profit limited liability companies, benefit corporations, benefit limited liability companies, public benefit corporations, and social purpose corporations. Social enterprises have attracted increasing academic attention, but virtually nothing has been written on if and how states are competing for these entities. This Article attempts to fill that void, while also providing a history of the social enterprise forms, a comparative analysis, and recommendations for states that wish to engage in jurisdictional competition in the social enterprise law market.

Keywords: Benefit Corporations, L3C, Certified B Corporations, constituency statutes, jurisdictional competition, third party standards, B Lab

JEL Classification: K1, K22, M13, M14