The Coalition also supports the UK Government definition which many of its members were actively
involved in helping to develop37: "A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives
whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather
than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners. [...]"
Virtue Ventures [http://www.virtueventures.com] proposes the following working definition of social
enterprise, inspired by these definitions and others, that captures the specificity of purpose and
approach while encompassing the broad range of practical applications:
A social enterprise is any business venture created for a social purpose–mitigating/reducing a
social problem or a market failure–and to generate social value while operating with the
financial discipline, innovation and determination of a private sector business.
In its widespread usage, "social entrepreneur" is the individual and "social enterprise" is the
organization. Therefore, social enterprise is an institutional expression of the term social entrepreneur.
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