Sparking to flames
In fact, the social enterprise concept has been alive for quite some time in Europe and the United States, and even developing countries such as India and Bangladesh have, due to the intense needs of their disadvantaged groups, developed a degree of maturity and innovation in this realm. But because Taiwan is largely a middle-class nation, with a social atmosphere that favors charitable and governmental provision of social welfare, it used to lack the social enterprise model.
In 2007, Trend Micro’s chairman and founder Steve Chang and the author Tom Wang founded Flow, a venture capital firm that has held competitions to find social enterprises to invest in. It caused a big stir, but because it followed the old model of “creating success by throwing money at a project,” it hasn’t been as successful as they had hoped.
“When consumer markets are not yet fertile ground for these projects, how can they take root?” asks Hu Jer-san. Idealism and reflection must come first. You start by cultivating consumer habits; only then will the products created by social enterprises meet with market acceptance.
In 2008 various organizations, including the United Way of Taiwan, 104 Job Bank, and the Small Offices and Home Offices Association, banded together to organize Charity 2.0, which called for people to mobilize to help the poor. Thanks to donations from the public, they were able to provide micro-financing for enterprises founded by members of disadvantaged groups. An emphasis was placed on financial transparency, interaction with the public, and providing enterprises with professional knowledge. Charity 2.0 immediately received a lot of attention from public interest groups, many of which tried to learn from their examples.
In 2010 the Taiwan Social Enterprise Innovation and Entrepreneurship Society was established at Fu Jen University. The organization constructs theories and promotes concepts, and it also identifies successful ventures and analyzes their business models, before spreading the good word about them. Among the successes are Rejoice Bread Workshop, which focuses on finding employment for the disadvantaged and on national food self-sufficiency; the Antique Assam Tea Farm, which promotes organic food production and environmental consciousness; and the newspaper Bao Bon Phuong, which provides a voice for the disadvantaged. All of these examples can help instill confidence in those thinking about establishing a social enterprise.
Wu Chung-shen, chair of the sociology department at Fu Jen and a participant in the Charity 2.0 program who has been researching economic models for many years, notes that Taiwan already has more than 5000 hardworking social enterprises. These include nearly 60 registered companies, more than 100 non-profit public-interest organizations that are making quick progress at becoming economically self-supporting, and over 5000 production and marketing co-ops actively pursuing transformation.
“Consumers are no longer making purchasing decisions simply based on price, functionality and beauty,” says Wu. “They also want to identify with social ideals. This kind of new consumer culture prioritizes buying products from social enterprises over products of large corporations, which have frequent issues with food safety. Consequently, they’ve created a fertile ground in Taiwan for cultivating social enterprises.”
For a field trip, excited high school students from Zhongli take the “Day Trip for Fair Trade” tour.