Purpose – Twelve years ago, the concept of social enterprise was rarely discussed in Europe, however it is now making significant breakthroughs in European Union (EU) countries. Within this context, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize major evolutions experienced by social enterprises...

Purpose In 2022, the EMES Network celebrated its 20th anniversary. The purpose of this paper is to trace the intellectual path of social enterprise (SE) research that has unfolded through some of the major EMES research projects. Design/methodology/approach This journey is recounted through...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that it is feasible to theoretically and empirically build an international typology of social enterprise (SE) models. The authors first rely on their previous work (Defourny and Nyssens, 2017), suggesting that the concept of “interest...

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the applicability of the benefits theory of nonprofit finance to an international sample of social enterprises (SEs). Design/methodology/approach: This research analyzes the revenue sources of SEs through the lens of benefits theory. In particular, the...

Purpose – Fair trade organisations (FTOs) have been taken quite early as examples of Social Enterprises (SE) and have contributed to the shaping of the SE concept. The purpose of this paper is to examine more deeply the link between FTOs and SE, both at a conceptual and at an empirical level....

Purpose – This paper aims to compare profiles of social enterprises as they are emerging in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and to highlight common features across countries allowing the identification of (partly) East‐Asian‐specific model(s) of social enterprise....