Social Enterprise in Higher Education: A Viable Venture?

ABSTRACT

Social enterprise is a burgeoning, although nebulously defined, strategy for linking market-based revenues with social good in nonprofit, for-profit, and public organizations. This article offers a unifying definition of social enterprise, tracks its development throughout traditional sectors, and takes a first step in extending the concepts of social enterprise to the higher education sector. We argue that administrators of university centers associated with schools of social work should employ social enterprise principles. Key benefits would be to gain revenue for the centers, break down disciplinary silos in the university, better link social work schools to the world outside academe, help train students in an emerging organizational model, and increase civic engagement in the university.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard A. Hoefer

Richard A. Hoefer is with the School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Shannon M. Sliva

Shannon M. Sliva is in the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver.