Social Impacts of Work Integration Social Enterprise in Hong Kong – Workfare and Beyond

Abstract

In 2017, there are over six hundreds social enterprises in Hong Kong. Among them, approximately 70% are work integration social enterprises (WISEs) primarily aiming at creating employment and/or providing vocational training for the disadvantaged groups. Impact assessment of these WISEs is a growing concern in the society. In this article, the authors review major types of impact assessment approaches and three categories are delineated – outcome-based, structured-based and process-based approaches. Through the application of one particular outcome-based approach, Social Return on Investment (SROI), onto four invited local WISEs, the social impacts induced by selected WISEs and their significances are discussed.

Keywords:

• Social impact assessment
• SROI
• work integration social enterprise
• Hong Kong

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The median individual income in Hong Kong was about HK$168K or US$21.5K per annum in 2013 when the research was conducted.