Welfare reform and social enterprise: Towards an institutional theory of social enterprise

This paper derives the PRAMS analytical framework from the welfare regime perspective to examine differences in the way that social enterprises develop in different societies. We conducted a comparative analysis of five societies, namely the UK, the US, Italy, Sweden, and Taiwan. We argue that the welfare regime in a society shapes the trajectory of the development of that society’s social enterprises, with respect to the type of organizational agent that predominates, the overall size of the sector, and the scope of its operating activities. We conclude that a welfare regime cluster corresponds to a social enterprise cluster. A major policy implication of this is that cross-country policy learning in social enterprise development is largely limited by differences in welfare provision institutions.
本文以福利類型（welfare regime）理論為基礎，發展出一個名為PRAMS的分析架構，嘗試解釋社會企業在不同國家的發展模式差異。本文選取了英國、美國、意大利、瑞典和台灣五個地區作比較分析，發現福利類型對社會企業發展有明顯的影響，當中包括社會企業以何種組織形態為主、社會企業部門的總體規模，以及社會企業的業務範疇等。本文的主要結論，是不同的福利類型會衍生出不同的社會企業類型；其對政策的啟示，就是社會企業的發展方向和步伐，需要配合本地的福利制度改革。Copyright © 2010 Stephen W. K. Chiu and Richard K. C. Wong.