What are the barriers to investing in social enterprises? An investigation into the attitudes and experiences of social entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom

Seddon, F. A., Hazenberg, R. and Denny, S. (2013) What are the barriers to investing in social enterprises? An investigation into the attitudes and experiences of social entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom. Paper presented to: 4th EMES European Research Network International Research Conference on Social Enterprise, University of Liege, Belgium, 2013-07-04.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Abstract:	The ongoing global economic crisis and the restrictions that this is having on government expenditure has meant that current UK policy is being directed at trying to end the grant dependency that currently exists in the third sector. One of the key focuses of this policy initiative has been to try to increase the third sector’s access to both debt finance from lending institutions and equity finance from venture capital investors. However, this policy intervention presupposes that the lack of private sector investment in the third sector is a ‘supply-side’ problem caused by limited funds. This ignores the structural problems in the social enterprise sector related to governance and a lack of organisational capacity. Indeed, as of 2011 the ethical investment sector in the UK was worth approximately £9 billion and was spread across 90 ethical investment funds responsible to 700,000 investors. Additionally, social investment (i.e. those funds targeted specifically at third sector organisations) was worth £165 million as of 2011. This suggests that the lack of private sector investment in social enterprises in the UK is not a ‘supply’ side problem but is instead related to the ‘investment readiness’ of social enterprises
Creators:	Seddon, Frederick A, Hazenberg, Richard and Denny, Simon
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:	Research Institutes > Institute for Social Innovation and Impact
Date:	4 July 2013
Date Type:	Publication
Journal or Publication Title:	4th EMES European Research Network International Research Conference on Social Enterprise
Event Title:	4th EMES European Research Network International Research Conference on Social Enterprise
Event Dates:	2013-07-04
Event Location:	University of Liege, Belgium
Event Type:	Other
Language:	English
Status:	Published / Disseminated
Refereed:	No
Related URLs:	https://pure.northampton.ac.uk/en/public...
URI:	http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/5851

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