| Business Planning and the Sustainability of Social Enterprises: Evidence from Hong Kong |
Received:October 16, 2017 Revised:October 16, 2017 |
Key Words: Social enterprise, planning, Hong Kong |
| Author Name | Affiliation | | Thomas Wing Yan Man | Hang Seng Management College | | Lei Li* | Nottingham University Business School China |
|
Hits: 606 |
Abstract: |
| Through a multi-case study of twenty social enterprises (SEs) in Hong Kong, this study aims at addressing this relationship between business planning of SEs and their sustained operations. The results indicate that in the majority of cases, business planning does not directly improve the financial performance of SEs. Instead, business planning helps SEs clarify their social objectives so that they can communicate such objectives to their stakeholders such as investors, sponsoring organisations, volunteers, customers for receiving continued support. In particular, business planning serves the function of attracting new investors to support the SEs so that they can keep sustainable. On the other hand, business planning can support the SEs with a fast decision making process which can lead to financial performance but this is conditioned upon the SE founders’ knowledge of their respective industry and the skills of business operations as well as the ownership type of SEs. The study suggests that is necessary for the SEs’ founders to acquire adequate knowledge of their respective industry and the skills of business operations is crucial for the true sustainability of SEs through financial sufficiency. Also, the funding bodies for SEs shall critically evaluate their role when providing funding support to SEs. |
|
|
|
