Changes in social enterprise policy in Korea

Abstract

This chapter introduces the social enterprise policy in Korea. The policy design of the social enterprise in Korea can be characterised by the top-down policy aiming at taking advantage of social enterprise as a tool to achieve its hidden goal, that is, relieving jobless growth problem. The intention of the government was reflected in designing the approval system. The chapter begins with a brief history of social enterprise policy in Korea, then the discussion follows to answer the question, ‘for what is the social enterprise used?’ Under the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm, the policy analysis was contained to the short-term output performance, which made social enterprise not as a vehicle to achieve long-term sustainability but as a tool to achieve short-term performance.