The Role of Social Enterprise

A social enterprise operates a business in a manner intended to increase social welfare more than conventional businesses in the same sector. This notion of “social enterprise” was pioneered by nonprofit organizations seeking to advance their charitable missions through revenue-generating commercial activity, instead of relying on charitable donations. With increasing frequency the term is applied to for-profit business ventures whose founders seek to both address social problems while also generating acceptable returns for owner-investors. The article examines the notion of for-profit social enterprise, and explains how such entities may better achieve social goals than nonprofits engaged in revenue-generating commercial activity, most notably by expanding a business’s access to capital and talent. The article also addresses what some have described as the “legacy problem” – the concern that for-profit social enterprises will not sustain their social missions after the founding social entrepreneur’s exit or loss of enthusiasm. Such concerns, the authors argue, reflect a “nonprofit lite” perspective, which sees the main challenge of social enterprise law as increasing the resources available to what are essentially nonprofit organizations, i.e., entities that are explicitly committed to generating social value in perpetuity. The authors favor an approach that is grounded in the broader ambitions of social entrepreneurship, which is to increase social welfare by transforming markets and preferences in a way that goes well beyond a particular enterprise’s activities. The for-profit social enterprise itself may be transitional and need not survive in order to achieve large-scale social change

Freezing out Ben & Jerry: Corporate Law and the Sale of a Social Enterprise Icon

Companies with social missions are frequently bought by larger, more conventional profit-seeking firms and just as frequently accused of “selling out.” Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. is perhaps the leading example: its takeover by international conglomerate Unilever is an oft-repeated cautionary tale of the negative proclivities of the publicly-traded corporate form and profit-maximizing corporate law. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, corporate law did not compel the sale, or sell-out, of Ben & Jerry’s. This familiar account omits a critical part of the narrative -- the company and its founders had established impressive anti-takeover defenses that, when pressed, the board declined to test. The Ben & Jerry’s story demonstrates that a well designed corporate structure can be suitable for social entrepreneurs seeking to pursue both profits and a social mission. Moreover, handwringing by progressives over the sale of social enterprise icons may be misguided, as such transactions may enable these firms to create more social value than they could independently

Is Social Enterprise the New Corporate Social Responsibility?

Since at least the famous Berle-Dodds debate, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and later its more muscular and structural iteration, progressive corporate law, have been discussed without much progress. The authors consider whether the social enterprise movement, which envisions a new sector of businesses created both to generate profits and pursue social goals, advances this debate. They conclude that it does. Proponents of social enterprise believe that such businesses can combine the dynamism of for-profit firms with the mission-driven zeal more typical of nonprofit organizations. Social enterprise and CSR have much in common: both want businesses to take the interests of non-shareholder stakeholders more seriously and play a larger role in addressing social and environmental problems. Yet there are important and underexplored differences. Unlike CSR, the idea of social enterprise is remarkably congenial to mainstream corporate law in ideology and methodology. In one respect, the social enterprise movement sidesteps the CSR debate by operating in a different setting - its vision is realized and embodied in new organizational forms rather than existing corporations. In another respect, the movement shows how mainstream corporate law can accommodate CSR and progressive corporate law concerns without fundamental change. Social enterprise thus advances the CSR debate in unexpected ways - the movement appropriates some CSR notions and shares some CSR sensibilities, but combines them in a manner that should please corporate contractarians, alarm proponents of progressive corporate law, and discomfort some proponents of CSR

Sustainable Business

In recent years lawyers have become increasingly active in the field of for-profit social enterprise and sustainable business. This is nowhere more evident than in the design of new organizational forms such as the low-profit limited liability company (L3C), the flexible purpose corporation, and the benefit corporation. In this emerging field, sustainability is perhaps the most prized quality as well as its most versatile construct. This Essay contributes to the debate over new legal forms by analyzing the multiple meanings of sustainability in this context. The analysis demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between the social enterprise as a dual mission or double bottom line endeavor (i.e., one that pursues both profits and a non-pecuniary mission) and the sustainable business as a triple bottom line endeavor (i.e., one that pursues the tripartite goals of profits, social equity, and environmental sustainability -- also known as people, planet, profit), and the critical yet unappreciated differences between the two types of undertakings. Social enterprise and sustainable business each attempt to solve a different problem, and these problems differ vastly in scale. In the case of social enterprise, new forms such as the L3C and flexible purpose corporation address a relatively discrete and concrete problem: how can mission-driven for-profit businesses expand access to capital without endangering their missions, enabling them to combine the most advantageous features of the for-profit and nonprofit forms. The ability of new forms to achieve these aims has been extensively discussed, but relatively little has been said about the non-pecuniary missions of such businesses other than that they be legally charitable, social, or confer a public benefit. In contrast, the sustainable business movement is more ambitious and specific in its aims: it seeks to enlist private enterprises in a global struggle to avert humanitarian disaster and ecological catastrophe. Although it has been little remarked upon, the benefit corporation form provides a good model for how triple bottom line businesses may be organized. At the same time, the benefit corporation could, if accepted as the model or archetypal social enterprise, serve as a Trojan horse for environmental sustainability by imposing an environmental mandate on every social enterprise, thereby eliminating the distinction between social enterprise and sustainable business. No longer could a social entrepreneur simply follow her bliss if that bliss is deemed environmentally unsustainable. The problems created by imposing an additional non-pecuniary bottom line on dual mission social enterprises have been neither acknowledged nor resolved

Is Social Enterprise the New Corporate Social Responsibility?

The social enterprise movement and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement, including its progressive corporate law offshoot, appear to have much in common. They both seek a “better” world in a broadly left-liberal sense. Both want more businesses to take the interests of nonshareholder stakeholders seriously and to play a larger role in addressing pressing social and environmental problems. Yet there are some critical and underexplored differences in each movement’s approach to social change. We argue that social enterprise offers an authentic alternative to CSR, even though its short-term social impact would likely be smaller. This alternative, moreover, is remarkably congenial to mainstream corporate law in ideology and methodology. In one respect, the social enterprise movement sidesteps the CSR debate by operating in a different setting—its vision is realized and embodied in new organizational forms rather than existing corporations. In another respect, the movement shows how mainstream corporate law can accommodate CSR’s and progressive corporate law’s concerns without fundamental change. This Article is presented in three parts. Part II provides a Berle-themed synthesis of the CSR debate, including its progressive corporate law iteration. Part III describes the social enterprise movement, its legal agenda, and discusses several new legal forms designed specifically for dual-goal businesses. Part IV highlights the overlaps and conflicts between each approach, and in light of the longstanding debate, explains the new and vital aspects of the social enterprise movement. Specifically, social enterprise advances the debate in unexpected ways—the movement appropriates some CSR notions and shares some CSR sensibilities, but combines them in a manner that should please corporate contractarians, alarm proponents of progressive corporate law, and discomfort some proponents of CSR

Direct angiotensin AT2 receptor stimulation using a novel AT2 receptor agonist, compound 21, evokes neuroprotection in conscious hypertensive rats

Background: In this study, the neuroprotective effect of a novel nonpeptide AT2R agonist, C21, was examined in a conscious model of stroke to verify a class effect of AT2R agonists as neuroprotective agents. Methods and Results: Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were pre-treated for 5 days prior to stroke with C21 alone or in combination with the AT2R antagonist PD123319. In a separate series of experiments C21 was administered in a series of 4 doses commencing 6 hours after stroke. A focal reperfusion model of ischemia was induced in conscious SHR by administering endothelin-1 to the middle cerebral artery (MCA). Motor coordination was assessed at 1 and 3 days after stroke and post mortem analyses of infarct volumes, microglia activation and neuronal survival were performed at 72 hours post MCA occlusion. When given prior to stroke, C21 dose dependently decreased infarct volume, which is consistent with the behavioural findings illustrating an improvement in motor deficit. During the pre-treatment protocol C21 was shown to enhance microglia activation, which are likely to be evoking protection by releasing brain derived neurotrophic factor. When drug administration was delayed until 6 hours after stroke, C21 still reduced brain injury. Conclusion: These results indicate that centrally administered C21 confers neuroprotection against stroke damage. This benefit is likely to involve various mechanisms, including microglial activation of endogenous repair and enhanced cerebroperfusion. Thus, we have confirmed the neuroprotective effect of AT2R stimulation using a nonpeptide compound which highlights the clinical potential of the AT2R agonists for future development

AlGaInN laser diode technology for GHz high-speed visible light communication through plastic optical fiber and water

AlGaInN ridge waveguide laser diodes are fabricated to achieve single-mode operation with optical powers up to 100 mW at ∼420  nm∼420  nm for visible free-space, underwater, and plastic optical fiber communication. We report high-frequency operation of AlGaInN laser diodes with data transmission up to 2.5 GHz for free-space and underwater communication and up to 1.38 GHz through 10 m of plastic optical fiber

Heritability and components of phenotypic expression in skin reflectance of Mestizos from the Peruvian Lowlands

Skin reflectance was measured on the inner upper arm and forehead of a sample of 209 Mestizos ranging in age from 2 to 64 years living in the town of Lamas in the Eastern Peruvian Lowlands. The sample consisted of 43 father-son, 42 father-daughter, 62 mother-son, and 70 mother-daughter pairs. The sample also consisted of 57 brother-brother, 60 sister-sister and 139 brother-sister pairs. The reflectance measurements were made with a Photovolt Reflection Meter, model 670. Stepwise polynomial regression techniques were used to derive standardized residual values. Then using these residual values parent-offspring, sibling intraclass correlations and components of the phenotypic expression of skin reflectance were calculated. The study indicates that 1) the parent-offspring and sibling correlation coefficients conformed with the theoretical correlations expected assuming polygenic inheritance; 2) the husband-wife correlations indicate a high degree of assortative mating for skin color, but despite this effect the parent-offspring and sibling correlation coefficients are lower than the values expected under the influence of autosomal genes; 3) estimates of heritability and components of phenotypic expression indicate that about 55% of the total variability in skin reflectance could be attributed to the influence of additive genetic factors; and 4) there is no evidence of X-linkage in the inheritance of skin color.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37604/1/1330550207_ftp.pd