Social enterprise and social entrepreneurship: developing the evidence base using the UK Small Business Survey

Social enterprises – broadly defined as enterprises with a social purpose – have been on the rise globally in the post-crisis period. This review considers the recent developments amongst social enterprises in the UK. We consider existing theories that might underpin their development and growth and present an avenue for future quantitative analysis to improve our understanding going forward. Using the Small Business Survey, we are able to compare those small firms in the UK that declare themselves to be social enterprises with traditional for-profit firms. Data linking provides opportunities for panel analyses of these firms, compared with other SMEs, albeit at significantly reduced sample sizes. The findings supply some indication that social enterprises are more associated with higher levels of employment growth, but evidence is weak. The matching exercise demonstrates how these data might be considered in future analyses.