Comments like these were common to data
collected from all respondents who spoke about
the reasons why their initiative had been
established or why they had decided to get involved
in its work. These comments and others like them
revealed respondents’ desire to affect change and
make a difference, to meet local needs and to
tackle a particular social issue. Such reasons were
repeatedly identified as key motivating factors for
the establishment and growth of participating
social enterprises. Considered alongside existing
entrepreneurial and entrepreneurial marketing
literature, these findings suggest that, in common
with profit-orientated enterprises, participating
social enterprises were actively involved in
identifying and exploiting opportunities in the
formof unmet social needs. However, particular to
participating social enterprises, the local nature of
these opportunities is an important finding. Unlik