A Typology of Organisations in the Indian Social Sector

Abstract

"The Indian social sector is one of the largest and growing social economies across the world. However, there is lack of understanding of the variety of organisations in this sector as the existing typologies of social sector organisations are not suitable to understand the Indian social sector. This is because of two main reasons: first, the literature has largely concentrated on typologies of social sector enterprises in the developed economies of the West especially North America and European Union. Second, the different demands of the social sector in developed economies have led to growth of social sector enterprises which are widely different in form and structure compared to the Indian social sector organisations. With a view to fill this gap in the existing research, first we provide an overview of the existing typologies of social sector enterprises. Second, we suggest a typology that considers different characteristics simultaneously to provide a hierarchical typology of social sector organisations in India. We conclude the discussion with identification of the factors to be considered for application of this typology."