New research out this week from the Global Entrepreneurship Consortium (no, me neither), namely the Social Entrepreneurship Monitor. It’s basically a subset of the London Business School’s more general research into entrepreneurship (based on surveys of the general adult UK population) but it has some interesting findings worth pulling out. The data occasionally appears very, well, general, and the definitions of entrepreneurship arguable, but here goes:

– rural locations may be more socially entrepreneurial than urban regions

– women are proportionately more likely to be social than ‘mainstream’ entrepreneurs

– those who are labour market inactive are more likely to be social entrepreneurs than mainstream entrepreneurs

– social entrepreneurs can become more disillusioned/disheartened as time goes on, leading the report to suggest that "policy needs to focus on maintaining and developing the strenght of attitudes amongst the population of social entrepreneurs, if the population of social enterprises is to continue"

– social entrepreneurs are ‘community-centric’ and rely heavily on networks and support structures for their work

– over half of (established) social enterprises are charities, with a third "not for profit", and small percentages of co-operatives and limited liability partnerships (are they not "not for profit"?)

– financing remains the central issue…

There’s more in the report, but some interesting stuff here, particularly around which groups are more likely to be socially entrepreneurial, and the importance of support to maintain attitude and motivation, as well as deliver knowledge and skills.