Purpose

In many regions, the potential of social entrepreneurship and social innovation are not fully used. The purpose of this study is to explore issues and challenges in the business advisory support offered to social entrepreneurs and, from this background, give suggestions on how the advisory process to social entrepreneurs could be modified to better gain society.

Design/methodology/approach

Representatives from 15 business advisory organisations in Sweden were interviewed to examine how their support to social enterprises meets the needs of the companies, and to discover possible problems encountered regarding the business advice available to social enterprises. Using thematic analysis, six different overarching themes were identified that characterise issues and challenges in the business advisory support offered to social enterprises.

Findings

The results show that many advisers lack experience in social entrepreneurship, yet they consider that social enterprises are not “genuine” entrepreneurs, and that they, therefore, refer them to advisers focussing on co-operative enterprises. Furthermore, the absence of sustainable business models, the lack of financial resources and the existence of municipal monopoly are identified by the advisers as challenges.

Practical implications

This paper reveals an Achilles’ heel in the business advisory support offered to social enterprises, namely, the lack of experience and knowledge of social entrepreneurship amongst current business advisers, as well as a prioritisation of advice to more “commercial” entrepreneurs because of policy instruments and the expectations from the public funders of increased profitability and growth in the companies that receive advice. The mainstream business advisory service could play a key role by bringing together the various stakeholders in this shared value process. This would, however, require increased knowledge and new government policies and directives that ensure that social entrepreneurs are prioritised in the business advisory situation.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates that the current advisory system is not adapted to fit the needs of social enterprises. It also proposes the need to include participation and proximity in the business model design.

中文翻译：

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商业顾问在支持社会创业方面的作用

目的

在许多地区，社会创业和社会创新的潜力没有得到充分发挥。本研究的目的是探讨向社会企业家提供商业咨询支持中的问题和挑战，并在此背景下就如何修改社会企业家的咨询过程以更好地造福社会提出建议。

设计/方法/方法

瑞典 15 家商业咨询机构的代表接受了采访，考察他们对社会企业的支持如何满足企业的需求，并发现在为社会企业提供商业建议方面可能遇到的问题。使用专题分析，确定了六个不同的总体主题，这些主题描述了向社会企业提供的商业咨询支持中的问题和挑战。

发现

结果表明，许多顾问缺乏社会创业经验，但他们认为社会企业不是“真正的”企业家，因此将他们推荐给专注于合作企业的顾问。此外，顾问们认为缺乏可持续的商业模式、缺乏财政资源和市政垄断的存在是挑战。

实际影响

本文揭示了向社会企业提供商业咨询支持的致命弱点，即当前的商业顾问缺乏社会创业的经验和知识，以及由于政策工具而优先为更多“商业”企业家提供建议以及公共资助者对接受建议的公司盈利能力和增长的期望。主流商业咨询服务可以通过将这个共享价值过程中的各种利益相关者聚集在一起而发挥关键作用。然而，这需要更多的知识和新的政府政策和指令，以确保社会企业家在商业咨询情况下得到优先考虑。

原创性/价值

本文表明，当前的咨询系统不适应社会企业的需求。它还提出需要在商业模式设计中包括参与和接近。