By 2015 social entrepreneurship and social enterprise had arguably become part of the ‘mainstream’ of the political economy in some countries. At the launch of a report on the ‘state of social enterprise’, a British government minister said: ‘This report by … is proof that social enterprises continue to make a huge difference to thousands of people’s lives and reflects the success of a growing, vibrant sector which delivers both on an economic and social level’ (Rob Wilson, quoted by Corfe, 2015). In the foreword to the report, Leading the World in Social Enterprise, Claire Dove, Chair of Social Enterprise UK, wrote: ‘There is … continuing pressure to do more with less, and social enterprise continues to demonstrate how the resources in communities, in supply chains, in people and in investment can be used most effectively and to make the greatest change’ (Villeneuve-Smith and Temple, 2015, p 1). This is echoed in the body of the report: ‘Social enterprise is outperforming its mainstream SME counterparts in almost every key business metric: including turnover growth, start-up rates, diversity of leadership, innovation, workforce growth, and business optimism’ (Villeneuve-Smith and Temple, p 60).How do leadership and management skills contribute to this success? How different are they from the skills required to run other kinds of organisation? To the extent they are similar, how are these skills usually developed? If special skills are needed to run social enterprises, can they be developed in the same way as more generic leadership and management skills, or do they have to be developed in special ways?To answer these questions, we first have to consider the variations between organisations: for example, armies are obviously different from shops, and this affects how they are run, but there have been debates throughout history about how far there are general principles or practices in running organisations, and how far leadership and management skills vary according to the organisation type.
The second edition of this popular book has been inspired by the increasing interest around social entrepreneurship scholarship and the practice of delivering innovative solutions to social issues.Although social enterprises generally remain small, the impact of social entrepreneurs is increasing globally, as all countries are endeavouring to respond to increasingly complex social problems and demands for welfare at a time of government cut backs.Additional chapters and international case studies explore new developments, such as the rise of the social investment market, the use of design thinking and the increasing importance of social impact measurement.The second edition of this popular book uses in-depth theoretical study and international case studies to explore new developments in social entrepreneurship, such as the rise of the social investment market and the increasing importance of social impact measurement.