Purpose

As the provision of public services in many advanced welfare states has increasingly come to be marked by competition, social enterprises have actively been encouraged by governments to become involved in the delivery of public services. While the evaluation of complex public health interventions has arguably become increasingly more sophisticated, this has not been the case where social enterprise is concerned: evaluation of the actual impacts of social enterprises remains significantly underdeveloped by comparison. This study aims to support the establishment of a robust evidence base for the use of social enterprise as a policy instrument.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper assesses the potential of three methodological approaches common in the evaluation of complex public health interventions and applies them to the complex realm of community-led social enterprise.

Findings

Only through the involvement of different comparator groups, based on the research questions addressed, would it be possible to disentangle the embedded characteristics of organisations such as social enterprises. Each of the methods adopted in this research is time-consuming and resource-intensive and requires the researcher to possess advanced skills. Public officials should recognise the complexity and resource-intensive nature of such evaluation and resource it accordingly. If the aim of policymakers is to understand the added value of social enterprise organisations, an integrative research approach combining different research methods and design should be implemented to improve generalisability.

Originality/value

This study applies a range of favoured approaches to evaluate “complex” public health interventions include systematic reviews, realist evaluation and quasi-experimental investigation. However, such evaluation approaches have rarely been applied before in the context of social enterprise.

中文翻译：

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证明社会企业对健康和社会护理的贡献：方法和注意事项

目的

随着许多先进福利国家的公共服务日益以竞争为特征，政府积极鼓励社会企业参与提供公共服务。尽管对复杂的公共卫生干预措施的评估可以说变得越来越复杂，但对于社会企业而言却并非如此：相比之下，对社会企业的实际影响的评估仍然远远不够。这项研究旨在支持建立有力的证据基础，以将社会企业用作政策工具。

设计/方法/方法

本文评估了在评估复杂的公共卫生干预措施中常用的三种方法学方法的潜力，并将其应用于社区主导的社会企业的复杂领域。

发现

基于所解决的研究问题，只有通过不同的比较者团体的参与，才有可能弄清诸如社会企业之类的组织的内在特征。本研究中采用的每种方法都是耗时且资源密集的，并且要求研究人员具备先进的技能。公职人员应认识到这种评估的复杂性和资源密集性，并据此进行评估。如果决策者的目的是了解社会企业组织的附加值，则应采用将不同研究方法和设计结合起来的综合研究方法，以提高可推广性。

创意/价值

这项研究采用了一系列有利的方法来评估“复杂的”公共卫生干预措施，包括系统评价，现实评估和准实验调查。但是，这种评估方法很少在社会企业的背景下应用。