Discover how social enterprise is active in nearly all sectors of our economy, from those working to reintegrate ex-offenders to build homes or provide logistics services and more

Social enterprises are organizations that address societal challenges by engaging in commercial activities. Social enterprise are now active in nearly all sectors of our economy from those working to reintegrate ex-offenders to build homes or provide logistics services, to those using the strengths of individuals with autism to provide IT consultancy services, from enterprises creating mobile phones without conflict minerals, to ethical banks.

These intriguing examples of social enterprises have been rightly lauded for introducing innovative solutions to tackle social inequalities. But is this true of social enterprise in general and what strategies do they use? In this talk I adopt an evidence-based perspective and summarize what we know about how social enterprises can and cannot contribute to social inclusion. In particular, I reflect on how socially inclusive social entrepreneurship is in terms who becomes a social entrepreneur and present insights from a review of over 20 years of evidence on the strategies social enterprises use to simulate positive social change towards social inclusion.