A Comparative Study On The Role Of Government In The Growth Of Social Enterprises In Hong Kong And Taiwan

The growth of social enterprises is influenced by its context and the context factor of the government is particularly important,which may be the support or partner of the social enterprise.The government plays a vital role in the establishment of legitimacy,funding,promotion of social enterprises,resource linking,capability building and so on.In recent years,social enterprises have flourished in Hong Kong and Taiwan,during which two governments have done a lot of work to promote the growth of local social enterprises.However,because of the particularity of the local context,the practice of the two governments in the process of promotion shows some differences.Based on the theory of social enterprise and government and the general experience of social enterprise growth practice,this paper summarizes three dimensions of the comparison of government roles in t he growth of social enterprises:(1)the path of government promotion;(2)the main sectors of the government involvement in the growth of social enterprises;(3)the policy tools for the growth of social enterprises.In the above three dimensions,the author makes a comparative study of the role of government in the growth of Hong Kong and Taiwan social enterprises and go further explores the role logic of the two governments in the process of promoting social enterprises.The growth models of social enterprises are “Non-governmental sponsor of government assistance” and “Laissez-faire” in Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively.Through the comparative studies,there are some differences in the role of the government between Hong Kong and Taiwan:(1)the starting point of policy implement;(2)the path of policy implementation;(3)the depth and breadth of public sector involvement;(4)the attitude towards mandatory tools;(5)the degree of cooperation wit h civil organizations.Simultaneously,the role of the government in promoting the growth of social enterprises also presents same generalit ies,for instance,administrative means is the primary point of entry for policy promotion,pluralism of participants and the tendency of choosing the non-mandatory instrument.Meanwhile,this thesis analyses the logics or reasons behind the government role.There are four points should be noticed:(1)the commonality of the role of the government stems from the hybridit y of social enterprise;(2)the results of support lead to different starting point of policy logic;(3)the starting point of policy logic affects the selection of the type of public policy instrument;(4)the depth and width of government intervention depends on the development stage of social enterprises;(5)the path of policy operation is influenced by both the logical starting point of policy and the depth and width of government intervention departments;(6)the degree of collaboration with the civil society is a process of accumulation and is influenced by the trust between the government and the society.Last,three suggestions are put forward to the government of the mainland of China in social enterprise promotion actions:(1)the support strategies should be based on the context of the mainland district;(2)the choice of non-mandatory policy tools is a etter way;(3)mobilizing multiple social actors and cooperate with each other.