Meaningful difficulties in the mapping of social enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight conceptual and technical difficulties in mapping “social enterprise” and “social purpose business” organizations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reflects on the design and administration of a social enterprise population survey in Ontario, Canada. Findings – Numerous approaches used to frame social enterprise organizations were seriously flawed and fundamentally problematic, and criteria to distinguish social enterprise from other organizations were seemingly arbitrary, unstable, or unworkable. Originality/value – This paper both contributes to those attempting to empirically research social enterprise organizations, and to the broader discussion concerning whether social enterprise is usefully approached as a distinctive organizational form.