The Economics of Social Responsibility: The World of Social Enterprises

This book offers a rethinking of the burgeoning research on not-for-profit organizations and socially responsible economics. Adopting a comparative approach, the chapters explore and reinterpret the impact of social enterprises on the provision of general-interest services, work integration, microfinance, and fair trade, and show how these enterprises form the hub of an emerging economy of social responsibility. The book provides a new interpretation of social enterprises as entrepreneurial organizations that pursue social objectives and are successful due to the non-self-seeking motives of their members.

This book will be of interest to postgraduate students, professionals working in the not-for-profit sector, and scholars interested in socially responsible economics. It is particularly suitable for seminars and workshops focusing on the management of not-for-profit organizations, sustainable development, and globalization.

Leonardo Becchetti is Professor of Economics at the University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Italy.

Carlo Borzaga is Professor of Economics in the Faculty at the University of Trento, Italy, and President of the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse).