Abstract
Social enterprise pursues both social and economic goals and is recognized as a formula for achieving sustainable development. Sheltered workshops (SWs) are a manifestation of this phenomenon, their main objective being the labor market integration of disabled people. In this paper, the efficiency of SWs has been studied taking into account the operational and the core social aspects, as well as their distinct nature, namely for-profit or non-profit status. Additionally, we have analyzed the relationship between the social efficiency and the economic returns of these entities. To do this, a semiparametric methodology, combining different data envelopment analysis (DEA) models with truncated regression estimation has been used. It is the non-profit and top-performing SWs that achieve the best social and economic efficiency. For-profit and low-performing SWs show further reductions in social efficiency as a result of the economic crisis and uncertainty in subsidy-related public policies. Their extensive social proactiveness and high economic strength in the crisis period positively influenced their social and economic efficiency. We have also proven that it is the most profitable SWs that have the greatest social efficiency. We consider that our results constitute a useful complement to other evaluation models for social enterprise.
Highlights
Accepted: 18 January 2021 there is no unanimous agreement on what social enterprise (SE) means, different institutions and authors have developed their own definitions
data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used with multi-objective areas like corporate social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainable development, eco-efficiency and circular economy, microfinance and foundations and those already mentioned by Staessens et al [17] and Lee and Seo [19], who looked into job-creation for vulnerable groups in SEs
This study furthers knowledge about the performance of sheltered workshops, which represent a type of social enterprise and are considered to be hybrid organizations
Summary
Accepted: 18 January 2021 there is no unanimous agreement on what social enterprise (SE) means, different institutions and authors have developed their own definitions. Most of them concur that such companies can be labelled “hybrid organizations” with a social agenda and incorporate the presence of the market as a source of funding so that they have enough capital to invest in their projects [1] In spite of their categorization as hybrid companies, SEs can differ in terms of the importance that they attribute to economic logic and social logic, with the creation of social value always taking preference over financial performance [2,3]. SWs perform an important function in society by creating social value, since they are companies one of whose objectives is to help workers with disabilities find remunerated work placements which fit their skills profile. They help them integrate into the world of ordinary work by way of essential personal
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