Doing good while doing business: Using financial viability to enhance employability for the disadvantaged

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21350
• Author: Nan L. Maxwell,Dana Rotz,Megan Shoji,Adam Dunn
• Date: 01 June 2019
• Published date: 01 June 2019

RESEARCH NOTE

Doing good while doing business: Using financial

viability to enhance employability for the

disadvantaged

Nan L. Maxwell

1

| Adam Dunn

1

| Dana Rotz

2

| Megan Shoji

1

1

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Oakland,

California

2

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Cambridge,

Massachusetts

Correspondence

Nan Maxwell, Mathematica Policy Research Inc.,

Oakland, Oakland, CA 94612-1475.

Email: nmaxwell@mathematica-mpr.com

Funding information

Corporation for National and Community Service

under Social Innovation Fund, Grant/Award

Number: 10SIHCA001

The employment social enterprise (ESE) model can pro-

vide an opportunity to create a financially viable business

that helps individuals with employment barriers become

integrated into the labor force. This research studied eight

ESEs. Findings suggest that by applying private-sector

business principles to a workforce development programs,

social enterprises can provide participants with meaning-

ful and valuable work experience, while offsetting pro-

gram costs. Analysis identified four promising practices

that social entrepreneurs should adopt when setting up a

new enterprise. Enterprises should (a) provide soft-skill

training and social services to participants; (b) operate at a

size that allows for economies of scale in production and

the provision of support services; (c) have few occupa-

tional skill requirements; and (d) hire supervisors with

both industry knowledge and the capacity to support indi-

viduals with employment barriers.

KEYWORDS

employment program, social enterprise, social

entrepreneurship, social mission, transitional job

1|INTRODUCTION

Evaluations of publicly funded workforce development programs tend to show only modest, if any,

positive impacts (Barnow & Smith, 2009; Card, Kluve, & Weber, 2010), while many private-sector

workforce development efforts provide companies with positive returns (Leuven, 2004). Such

research suggests that financially viable businesses might be able to transform workforce develop-

ment programs by putting social objectives at the forefront of operations (Dacin, Dacin, & Matear,

2010). Employment social enterprises (ESEs) are one such entity. ESEs adopt a social mission of

Received: 21 April 2018 Revised and accepted: 5 December 2018

DOI: 10.1002/nml.21350

Nonprofit Management and Leadership. 2019;29:589–600. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/nml © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 589