Social enterprises are widely viewed as stakeholder organisations not least because
of the assumption about their asset base. Non-profits are theoretically owned by the
community rather than by shareholders (Pearce, 2003). They may have assets but these
are held in trust and so are locked-in for community benefit (Dunn and Riley, 2004).
There is no direct claim to be made on these assets other than by creditors in the case of
insolvency. Therefore, the democratic model has at its heart the idea that: