Processes of community-led social enterprise development: learning from the rural context

Abstract

This article considers whether, and if so how, rural communities can be supported, through a facilitated process, to create social enterprises within the field of health and care. Using results from the thematic analysis of four community case studies involved in a facilitated action-research process, the article identifies community capabilities and entrepreneurial skills needed to create such rural community-based service providers. The identification of similarities and differences in how the development process took place in four communities allows us to present a development model of our facilitated process. The article contributes to understanding about rural community social enterprises for service provision and the processes associated with their creation.