Unleashing social innovation for social economy: experience of social enterprise development in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper reflects on the emergence and growth of social enterprises in Hong Kong via the theoretical lens of social innovation. Two distinct and yet complementary usages of the term in the fields of local/urban governance and social entrepreneurship are employed to make sense of the development of social enterprises in the past decade. By reviewing the development trajectories and the organizational practices of five local social enterprise cases, the twofold meanings of social innovation as new modalities of service governance and key components in the practice of social entrepreneurship are delineated, which are found applicable to the policy discourse in Hong Kong. The experience of social enterprise development suggests that the idea of social innovation would likely play an important role in building and sustaining the growth of the social economy.

Keywords:

• social innovation
• social enterprise
• social economy
• local governance
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations (CAFO). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2nd EMES International Conference on Social Enterprise, Trento, Italy, 1–4 January 2009.

Notes

 1. See, for example, Moulaert et al. (2005), Mulgan et al. (2007), and Howaldt and Schwarz (2010) for reviews of the contemporary literature on social innovation in a variety of social science fields. Publications such as the Stanford Social Innovation Review have provided the platforms for practitioners and academics to debate and share views on various topics related to the concept.

 2. See studies conducted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU 2006) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Tang et al. 2008) for two government-sponsored research studies on social enterprise development in Hong Kong. On the development of WISE in Europe, see, for example, Bode et al. (2004) and Davister et al. (2004).

 3. Social entrepreneurship as a field of study covers a wide range of activities that comprise, inter alia, ‘enterprising individuals devoted to making a difference; social purpose business ventures dedicated to adding for-profit motivations to the nonprofit sector; new types of philanthropists supporting venture capital-like ‘investment’ portfolios; and nonprofit organizations that are reinventing themselves by drawing on lessons learned from the business world’ (Mair et al. 2006, p.1). In this article, social entrepreneurship organizations refer to those civil society groups that have developed social ventures in their service mix. The case introductions in this section examine various SEs and SEOs, while the ‘social entrepreneurs’ will be identified in the case studies when the attributes of social entrepreneurship are presented and analyzed in Section 4. The distinction between organizational entities and individual social entrepreneurs is made here to avoid unnecessary confusion in the theoretical and empirical explorations.

 4. 2006/07 figures were provided by Yvonne Yeung, General Manager of MCC, during personal interview dated 13 June 2006. 2009/10 data were gathered from MCC's website and the 2009/10 annual report (see MCC's website. http://www.mentalcare.com.hk/).

 5. SJS was established in 1949 by Bishop Hall. While still anchored in Wanchai, the SJS's services have been extended to other parts of Hong Kong Island including Causeway Bay, North Point, Chai Wan, Central, and Western districts.

 6. For the year 2004/05, SJS's combined annual income is HKD235 million (USD30 million). If all government subvention and other charity income (grants and donations) are removed from this figure, SJS's corporate ventures and self-financed services would have a turnover of approximately HKD88.6 million (USD11.4 million).

 7. According to the latest information provided by the association, the figure as of the end of July 2011 is 73,423 (up from 46,400 as of end of July 2006).

 8. According to SCHSA's latest annual report, total sale revenue related to the PE-Link call and care service amounted to HKD65.4 million (USD8.4 million) in 2009/10, with a net surplus of HKD9.5 million (USD1.2 million). As of 31 August 2010, the association's R&D Fund and the Accumulated Fund have balances of HKD14.5 million (USD1.9 million) and HKD36.7 million (USD4.5 million) respectively.

 9. See also research reports on tripartite partnerships commissioned by the government's Central Policy Unit (Civic Exchange 2005, Hong Kong Policy Research Institute 2005).

10. Incidentally, the first agency in Hong Kong to devise programs for achieving and advocating work integration for the disabled is St James' Settlement, which set up the first mobile cleaning crew in Hong Kong in 1989. SJS is also the agency that introduced the sheltered workshop service model to Hong Kong in the 1970s.

11. As of the end of 2006, SCHSA has a market share of 86%, and the percentage of government-subsidized users diminished from 90% to 46%.

12. See Bornstein (2004) for a description of the qualities of social entrepreneurs, which include the willingness to self-correct and their strong ethical impetus, which can explain their persistence in pursuing their social mission.