The Importance of Seeing the Bigger Picture: Approaching Social Enterprise from an Ecosystems and Governance Perspective Empowering Social Enterprise Research

This is the third and last episode about social enterprise from a research perspective. In this episode, we lift our gaze to the context in which social enterprises emerge and operate. We explore the concept of ecosystem, which considers, on the one hand, the connections between social enterprises and other players in their field of action, and on the other hand, the institutional conditions that enable social enterprises to thrive. We also examine the notion of multi-stakeholder governance, learning about social enterprise models purposefully designed to promote it, and showing the relevance of social enterprise involvement in governance structures at different levels. Featured in this episode: Francesca Petrella, Professor of Economics at the University of Aix-Marseille and a researcher at the Institute of Labour Economics and Industrial Sociology (FR); Sílvia Ferreira, researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (PT); and Andrés Morales Pachón, sociologist and researcher at La Rioja International University (ES).