英文摘要 |
The concept of “social enterprise” was firstly introduced to Mainland China in 2004, and it increasingly becomes an effective way to solve social problems. However, the studies about social enterprise are still in much debate, especially the nature of it. This paper attempts to review Chinese mainland scholars’ research on social enterprise in nearly 10 years and elaborate the results in the following four aspects. This paper begins by discussing the connotation, denotation, and organization form of social enterprise, to clarify the nature of it. Secondly, this article examines the theoretical perspectives on social enterprise from the view of corporate life cycle theory, especially focus on the start-up stage and growth stage. This section discusses the emergence of social enterprise, business model, marketing strategy, pricing model, performance measurement, and legal framework, aiming to build the theoretical foundation for studying social enterprise. Thirdly, this paper integrates the empirical studies on social enterprise in different fields and perspectives, such as unemployment, poverty alleviation, elderly care, and international comparison, to illuminate the reality of social enterprise working with different benefices in Mainland China. Fourthly, by analyzing the state of social enterprise research in China, this paper suggests future research directions for theory development of social enterprises in fourfold: theory construction, practical analysis, research method, and policy formulation. This paper contributes to build an integrated cognitive framework to understand the nature of the concept, theoretical perspective, practical development, as well as the influencing factors of social enterprise in Mainland China. |