This research aims to contribute to a better understanding of strategic collaborations between work-integration social enterprises (WISEs) and for-profit enterprises (FPEs) with the joint objective to improve labour market opportunities for vulnerable groups. We find that most collaborations strive towards integration or transformation in order to make more social impact.
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Dit instrument is gemaakt voor sociale ondernemingen die hun financiële impact zichtbaar willen maken.
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All over the world, sport events are seen as significant tools for creating positive social impact. This is understandable, as sport events have the power to attract enthusiastic participants, volunteers and to reach large audiences of visitors and followers via (social) media. Outbursts of excitement, pleasure and feelings of camaraderie are experienced among millions of people in the case of mega events. Still, a fairly large section of the population does not care that much for sports. Some may experience road blocks, litter and noise disturbance from the events. Sport events generally require investments, often from local or national authorities. Concerned citizens rightfully point at alternative usage of public money (e.g. schools, health care). Thrills and excitement are good things, but does that warrant public money being spent on? Or is there a broader social significance of sport events? Can sport events help alleviate societal issues (like cohesion, inequality and non-participation), do they generate a social impact beyond what spectators experience during the event? In this report the authors have aimed to describe the state of play as regards the evidence for the occurrence of a social impact from sport events and the strategies that are required to enhance social impact from sport events. For the report, an extensive scan of the literature was performed and input was collected from a key group of international experts.
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We need look no further than the use of email communication, mobile phones and cars to understand that technology has wide-ranging social consequences. What is more, designers are plainly not always aware of the social consequences of technology, despite practicing user-centred design. Email, for instance, was developed as an efficient mode of communication between two actors. As we all know, the introduction of email has fundamentally changed traditional business and office practices. These side effects were not identified until long after email was introduced. During recent years, designers have grown increasingly interested in these social aspects. Modern information technology, in particular, creates extensive possibilities to influence social behaviour. Persuasive technology has been developed to increase, e.g., environmental friendliness. Once a designer aims at defined social changes, the consequences of technology for practices become a responsibility, too. The present research is aimed at providing tools and methods to anticipate social consequences at an earlier stage of the design process. These consequences of technologies in social environments will be called social impacts. In order to be a meaningful concept for designers the characteristics of a particular technology that are responsible for social impacts must be identified. Social consequences of technologies have not been observed very thoroughly from a user-centred design point of view. Therefore, this thesis is aimed, not only at gaining knowledge about social impact, but also translating these insights into workable instruments for designers. This leads to the following research questions:1. What relations can be identified between social impacts and characteristics oftechnologies?2. How can a designer anticipate social impact?3. How can social impact be managed in design environments?
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The number of social enterprises in the Netherlands has increased rapidly. Social enterprises are looking for new, innovative and economically sustainable ways to tackle structural societal challenges that generally fall outside the direct focus and objectives of the public and private sector. Social enterprises are primarily mission-driven, where profit is not a goal in itself but a means of creating societal impact with regard to a specific social problem. Many social enterprises aim to increase their societal impact by growing their organization. However, despite their ambition, scaling up and expanding their impact remains challenging in practice. This research aimed to identify the main constraining factors in scaling up social enterprises and to develop effective methods to tackle these barriers in order to achieve more societal impact. The research was conducted among twenty social enterprises in the Netherlands, all of which aim to stimulate the labor market participation of people who are at a distance from the labor market, generally referred to as work-integration social enterprises. The results show that the majority of the participating social enterprises succeeded in achieving growth in the past two years with regard to specific indicators, but generally not in the way they had originally planned.
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Poster over systematic review met als thema 'social impact and legacy of sport events'. Gepresenteerd tijdens de Hanze Research Day.
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Purpose – The purpose of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of innovative forms of collaboration between different types of enterprises – aimed at scaling social impact – and address the challenges and complexities inherent to these specific types of partnerships. The particular focus is on strategic collaboration between workintegration social enterprises (WISEs) and mainstream, or for-profit enterprises (FPEs) with the shared objective to create more and better employment opportunities for disadvantaged individuals in the labour market. Design/methodology/approach – This study used a qualitative research design. The total sample consisted of 16 small- and medium-sized enterprises (both WISEs and FPEs), which were selected for their proven,business-to-business revenue model and their explicit ambition to create more inclusive jobs for disadvantaged individuals. Data collection and analysis took place between 2021 and 2023 and consisted of: semi-structured interviews with representatives of the participating enterprises to get a better understanding of the way in which current partnerships operate; and co-creative research methods to facilitate change processes – within and outside these partnerships – aimed at creating more social impact. Findings – Most collaborations between WISEs and FPEs start purely transactional, with the exchange of products or services, but once they become more familiarised with each other, the realisation of (joint) social impact becomes more significant. The ambition to further coordinate and integrate operations is prominent, but the partnership process is not without challenges and requires time, commitment and trust. So far, only few collaborations can be considered truly transformational. Originality/value – This study contributes to the discussion on strategic alliances and cross-sector collaborations by providing a conceptual framework and a practical instrument to shape strategic collaboration between social enterprises and FPEs that aim to create more social impact.
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Advies van SER Noord Nederland ten behoeve van het stimuleren van impact ondernemen in Noord-Nederland.
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Human capital and social capital are crucial in shaping entrepreneurial decisions, yet their combined effects on entrepreneurship entry remain insufficiently explored. This study uses data from the China Household Tracking Survey (2010–2018) to examine how the coupling of human and social capital influences entrepreneurship entry. By defining human-social capital coupling as the interdependence between these two forms of capital, we estimated its nonlinear impact using generalized propensity score matching and analyzed variations across gender and region. The results revealed that human capital-social capital coupling mediated the relationship between these capitals and entrepreneurship entry, following a significant N-shaped trend with identified thresholds. The impact of this coupling was also influenced by gender and regional variations. The study contributes to the literature by introducing a novel perspective on capital coupling, assessing its threshold effects, and highlighting gender and regional disparities. Individuals should understand and use the human capital-social capital coupling to guide their actions; policymakers are encouraged to consider and enhance the coupling between human and social capital in their entrepreneurship support strategies.
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