Lecture

Social Enterprise: new models for the financing of public good activities

Abstract

Several global trends have contributed to a reassessment of the traditionally stark dichotomy between profit-oriented companies and public good-oriented charities and NGOs. The result has been, in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States in particular, a flurry of recent creative ideas around the structure and role of the company itself.

Social enterprises, which are being introduced in the UK and Canada, and benefit corporations or B Corps in the United States represent new types of companies that take the premise that financial viability and social aims are deeply intertwined in their reasons-to-be. New corporate laws in these three countries have given such companies some protection from the more fundamentalist approach to profit as the sole aim of companies, allowing them to tap capital markets without fear of lawsuits when some profits are sacrificed for the pursuit of the larger social objectives of the company.

Bio

Douglas Hajek has been working in international education for over 22 years. In 1991, he founded a corporate training organization providing up to one thousand professional education programmes annually for more than twelve years. At Prague College, Mr. Hajek has taught business management, administration and information systems. As Director of Prague College, he holds primary responsibility for the strategic development of the institution. He is interested in all aspects of transnational education, especially new developments in national and international systems of quality assurance and enhancement. He has also been active in the spheres of publishing and cultural management.