Mapping Singapore's Social Enterprise Ecosystem: Institutional and Ecological Perspectives on Ecosystem Trends and Dynamics

The social enterprise sector in Singapore has become vibrant and diverse in recent years. The sector continues to experience significant growth, as more new players enter the field. This paper aims to map the diverse range of... [ view full abstract ]

The social enterprise sector in Singapore has become vibrant and diverse in recent years. The sector continues to experience significant growth, as more new players enter the field. This paper aims to map the diverse range of social enterprises that have emerged in the Singapore context, and that have taken on the role of change makers addressing various social challenges and problems. While some of the social enterprises are registered as cooperative societies, many others adopt legal structures as diverse as sole proprietorships, limited liability partnerships, private limited companies, and companies limited by guarantee. And while a significant proportion of the social enterprises are work integration social enterprises (WISEs) that offer training and employment opportunities to the marginalized, an increasing number of non-work integration social enterprises that address a wide range of social problems can also be found.

This paper also aims to identify various secondary organizations in the social enterprise ecosystem. These include organizations that build up the capabilities of the social enterprises, and organizations that offer financial grants or provide other forms of funding to the social enterprises.

This paper draws upon relevant concepts and ideas from institutional theory and organizational ecology, to explain the trends and dynamics within the social enterprise ecosystem. In particular, the WISEs that support marginalized local communities in Singapore experience both sociopolitical legitimation and constitutive legitimation. In addition, the rather limited range of enterprise activities that these WISEs engage in yields evidence of mimetic isomorphism. By contrast, the WISEs that support marginalized foreign communities in Singapore or marginalized communities overseas, as well as the non-WISEs, neither experience sociopolitical legitimation nor constitutive legitimation; these social enterprises are left on their own to evolve organically.

The social enterprises that are registered as co-operative societies operate under a very specific institutional and regulatory framework, and can be considered a distinct sector on its own. Given the institutional and regulatory framework, the co-operative movement is subject to a high level of sociopolitical legitimation. However, the extent of constitutive legitimation does vary across different segments of the co-operative movement. Specifically, the co-operative societies associated with the National Trades Union Congress experience a very high level of constitutive legitimation. By contrast, there is evidence of constitutive delegitimation amongst most of the other co-operative societies as they grapple with sustainability and survival challenges.

There are some secondary organizations in the social enterprise ecosystem (i.e., the capability builders and the funders) that provide support to social enterprises in Singapore. These capability builders and funders certainly play an important role in the sociopolitical legitimation of these social enterprises. However, their role in the constitutive legitimation of the social enterprises is considerably limited.