Towards a Typology of Social Enterprises Based on Performance: Some New Evidence

Abstract

This study deals with the first empirical study on a performance typology of social enterprises (SEs). Based upon a sample of 61 Greek SEs, the empirical findings outline how the group of ‘Impact Maximisers’ (43 SEs) performs better than the group of ‘Social Missionaries’ (18 SEs). This paper goes beyond the evident focus on qualitative research and practice within the social entrepreneurship field. By discussing how different dimensions shed light on the performance potential of SEs in a European country, where they grow exponentially, this study serves as a bellwether for performance comparisons across Europe.

Keywords:

• Social enterprises
• performance
• impact
• empirical study
• cluster analysis
• hybridity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).