Social enterprises : the prioritised logic and its influence on business operations.

Abstract

This exploratory study finds out how social enterprises in Singapore prioritise the seemingly conflicting logics, or goals, of social development and profit-making. Thereafter, it explores how the prioritised goal of these social enterprises influences their business operations.

A qualitative approach was used, and information was collected primarily via interviews with multiple stakeholders from two social enterprises in the food and beverage (F&B) industry, Breakthrough Café and Eighteen Chefs. Café observations were also conducted to provide additional insights.

Breakthrough Café prioritises social development while Eighteen Chefs prioritises profit-making. Various elements of their business operations were observed to differ depending on their prioritised goal. An interesting connection between the sources of funding and prioritised goal was also detected. With these in mind, a framework has been developed to suggest the possible relationships between the sources of funding, prioritising of logics and business operations.

Budding social enterprises may wish to draw references from the framework in developing their business objectives and operations. However, care should be taken to generalise the framework for all social enterprises, given that it is developed based only on two case studies of the work integration model in the F&B industry.