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The Development of Teacher Burnout and the Effects of Resource Factors: A Latent Transition Perspective

1 State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; nc.ude.unb.liam@010034137102 (M.X.); nc.ude.unb.liam@ssgnauh (S.H.)

Shunsen Huang

2 Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment for Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; nc.ude.unb@ek

3 Beijing Institute of Education Science, Beijing 100080, China; moc.361@026026aixgnaw

Associated Data

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.

To better understand burnout and its development, researchers have shown an increasing interest in recent years in identifying different profiles of burnout and its development process. However, there have been few longitudinal studies on the profile and development of teacher burnout. This study used a person-centred approach to explore the profiles of teacher burnout, transition probabilities and the associations between these aspects and resource factors. Data were collected from 3743 primary school teachers in a two-wave longitudinal test over three years. The results showed that teacher burnout exhibited six relatively stable profiles across the whole study population and that the transition of individual profiles over time followed a certain probability. Psychological capital and professional identity were important resource factors in reducing the occurrence of teacher burnout and increasing transition probability toward burnout symptom alleviation over time, while positive coping played an important role in reducing the occurrence of teacher ineffectiveness. Therefore, the results indicated that the overall teacher burnout profile was stable, a discovery which has important implications for conducting group interventions to benefit more teachers, while the individual burnout profile exhibited a latent transition probability over time. Interventions employing different resource factors can be adopted to alleviate the symptoms of different burnout profiles.

1. Introduction

Teacher burnout is a psychological syndrome that teachers experience in response to chronic job stress, and includes emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and reduced personal accomplishment (PA) [ 1 ]. EE refers to feelings of overextending and draining emotional resources, while DP refers to negative, callous, or unfeeling responses to the job, and PA refers to feelings of incompetency and reduction in productivity. There are many direct, mediating, and moderating factors that contribute to teacher burnout [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. However, there have been few longitudinal studies on teacher burnout, and the developmental aspects of teacher burnout remain controversial [ 11 ]. Theoretically, there are five prominent models that describe the developmental process of burnout symptoms [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], but they remain debated in terms of theory and lack consistent findings. One reason for this lack of findings may be that such studies have ignored the fact that individuals in the same dataset follow different processes of burnout [ 16 , 17 ]. Leiter and Maslach (2016) [ 16 ] argued that dividing burnout into different profiles could provide a better understanding of burnout and its development processes, and they proposed evaluating the relative stability of various profiles through longitudinal studies. However, very few studies have investigated the profiles of teacher burnout and their relative stability using longitudinal data [ 8 ]. A three-wave longitudinal study divided teacher burnout into seven developmental categories based only on the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout [ 18 ]. These studies focused on the different development of individual burnout profiles but ignored the question of whether the whole sample exhibited the same burnout profiles at different points in time, that is, the relative stability of the burnout profiles themselves. To attain a more profound understanding of the profiles and development of teacher burnout, this study explores the question of whether the whole sample exhibits the same profiles at varying points in time and investigates the transformation of individual profiles across times.

Latent profile analysis (LPA), as a person-centred approach, fits well with these multidimensional profiles [ 16 , 17 ]. LPA grants the capacity to identify the ideal number of latent subgroups (profiles) in a population based on an individual’s response to multiple observed variables [ 19 ]. Latent transition analysis (LTA) is an extension of LPA in which the probabilities of transitions from each class at one point in time to all others at the next point in time are estimated using longitudinal data [ 20 ]. LPA and LTA are part of a person-centred analytical approach that aims to identify subgroups of individuals with similar scores on various indicators of interest [ 21 ].

This study aimed to complement previous person-centred teacher burnout research and contribute to the teacher burnout literature in three important ways. First, longitudinal data was used to capture possible profiles of teacher burnout and to examine the relative stability of these profiles over time. Based on the theoretical model of burnout development at the whole level (e.g., the eight-phase model of [ 12 ]), the burnout profiles may be the same from an overall perspective. If the latent profiles of teacher burnout were found to be stable at different points in time, it would be more conducive to understanding and discovering the characteristics of teacher burnout theoretically and it would be of great significance for making and popularizing the targeted interventions in practice, which has not been mentioned by previous studies. Second, via longitudinal data, the understanding of the development of teacher burnout was enhanced by considering the possibility that the burnout profiles would not transfer in the same direction across all individuals. In other words, this study considered both the overall consistency of teacher burnout profiles and the variability of teacher burnout profiles at the individual level. Third, the effect of individual resources (here, psychological capital, professional identity and positive coping) was taken into account on the disposition of teacher burnout profiles and the latent transition of different profiles over time. These resource factors were confirmed to be important for teacher burnout [ 6 , 9 , 22 ]. Our study has the potential to produce a variety of information concerning the link between individual resources and burnout profiles and their roles in the transition of different burnout profiles, which is valuable for practical work.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. development and profiles of burnout.

Burnout has been studied in the field of psychology and education for over forty years, and teacher burnout has been an important part of burnout research [ 1 ]. It is helpful to review the research regarding the development and profiles of burnout to guide the study of teacher burnout. To date, two lines of research have been conducted to examine the development and profiles of burnout. The first line of research has employed a variable-centred approach (e.g., regression-based analysis) to explore the development of burnout across the whole study population [ 23 ]. This line of research has made a valuable contribution to the long-term interplay of three burnout symptoms. At least five prominent models have described the sequential process of the three symptoms of burnout [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], although thus far, none of these models has proved to be preferable [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, this line of research has ignored the various types of burnout and the fact that the development of burnout may follow different trajectories. In recent years, a second line of research has been developed. This line of research uses a person-centred approach (e.g., median splits, or latent profile analysis) to capture the profile features of burnout and its development within an individual [ 8 , 16 , 17 , 28 ]. These studies have confirmed that the development of burnout does not follow a uniform pattern and that there may be different burnout profiles at varying times. However, these studies have not explored whether the same burnout profiles exist at different points in time throughout the whole study population. For example, Golembiewski et al. (1983) [ 12 ] described eight burnout profiles at the group level using a median split based on their developmental model at the individual level. They declared that different individuals exhibited different burnout profiles, and that not every individual had to experience all profiles. In other words, individuals may exhibit different profiles of burnout at varying times, but overall, the same profiles of the three burnout symptoms persist.

For the teacher population, only a few studies have investigated the development and profiles of teacher burnout, especially in the context of longitudinal studies. For example, Taris et al. (2005) [ 11 ] compared several developmental models in a longitudinal study referencing a sample of teachers and proposed the Taris (2005) model, which was “EE→DP→EE&PA”, for the whole study population, but the authors did not describe the profiles of teacher burnout. Méndez et al. (2020) [ 8 ] divided teacher burnout into three profiles based on a cross-sectional study, including profiles that were low in three symptoms, high in three symptoms, and low in EE and DP but high in reduced PA. However, no study has analysed both teacher burnout profiles and their development in tandem with the three burnout symptoms using longitudinal data. Exploring more detailed information concerning the profiles of teacher burnout and the transitions among them would facilitate interventions for subgroups of teachers with different profiles. This study explored the questions of whether the whole sample of teachers exhibits the same profiles at different points in time and how individual profiles transfer over time using the LPA/LTA method. Theoretically, in the case of three symptoms, a developmental model could empirically construct eight profiles (high or low in each symptom × three symptoms, 8 = 2 3 ) using the median split method. As noted by Golembiewski et al. (1983) [ 12 ], middling profiles were not easy to distinguish. The LPA method may incorporate some middling profiles to improve the differentiation of latent profiles [ 16 ]. The hypotheses are as follows:

Teacher burnout exhibits the same profiles across time throughout the whole study population. Specifically, based on development models, there are no more than eight profiles, and the three dimensions of burnout are well distinguished.

In different burnout profiles, the burnout profiles of individuals transfer to other profiles with a certain transition proportion over time. Given the interactions among different situational factors and different individual cognitions, the transition probabilities from the same burnout profile to other burnout profiles are unequal.

2.2. Individual Resource Factors and Teacher Burnout

Classrooms, schools, and society all demand more from teachers without providing proportional resources [ 5 ]. However, this situation does not mean that burnout symptoms will continue to worsen as long as the stress exists. The conservation of resources theory (COR theory) [ 29 , 30 ] and the job demand-resource model (JD-R model) [ 31 , 32 ] indicate that sufficient and effective resources play an important role in alleviating the negative impact of job stress on burnout. Here, psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping are considered to be important individual resources to combat stress and reduce burnout. Psychological capital is defined as a positive psychological state of development that supplements an individual’s energy to regulate behaviour [ 33 , 34 ]. Professional identity is defined as individuals’ own recognition of their specific occupational interests, abilities, goals, and values [ 35 ]. Positive coping refers to the specific effort that an individual makes to master, reduce, tolerate or minimize stressful events [ 3 ].

There is substantial empirical evidence that these three resource factors are linked to the reduction of burnout and its symptoms. For example, psychological capital can supplement the energy of individuals to regulate their behaviour and reduce the onset of burnout [ 34 ]. Psychological capital has not only significantly negative effects on the three symptoms of teacher burnout [ 6 , 9 ] but is also an important moderator on the effect of risk factors (e.g., occupational stress, emotional labour, and work-family conflict, etc.) on teacher burnout [ 7 , 36 , 37 ]. According to social identity theory, individuals need to exhibit self-identification to establish a positive self-image [ 38 ]. Teachers with low professional identity lack affirmation of their professional value, and therefore they tend to feel irritable and indifferent about their work, while teachers with high professional identity tend to exhibit low levels of burnout [ 10 ]. Coping can be understood from a stylistic point of view [ 39 ] and involves a set of cognitive and behavioural strategies. Positive coping, which refers to taking a direct and rational approach to dealing with the problem, is an important predominant predictor of low levels of teacher burnout [ 6 , 40 , 41 ]. Furthermore, some researchers have reported that positive coping is an important mediator in the relationship between psychological capital and teacher burnout [ 6 ]. However, no study has examined the effects of the three resource factors on the development and profile of teacher burnout. Therefore, this study examined the influence of psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping on the disposition of the profiles of teacher burnout and the transitions among them. The hypothesis is as follows:

Psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping affect the occurrence probability of the profiles of teacher burnout and the transition probability among different profiles.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. participants.

Two-waves of data concerning primary school teachers in Beijing were collected. Excluding teachers who retired within three years, 3743 teachers participated in the first wave (T1) in November 2014, while 3247 (86.7%) teachers participated in the second wave (T2) in November 2017. Little’s MCAR (missing completely at random) test showed that the missing data were MCAR (χ 2 = 125.647, df = 107, p = 0.105), and missing values were estimated using the full-information maximum likelihood (FIML) procedure [ 42 ]. At T1, 18.9% of teachers were male, and the percentages of teachers with less than 10 years, 10–20 years and more than 20 years of teaching experience were 22.3%, 35.7%, and 42%, respectively; the percentage of teachers in charge of classes was approximately 53.3%; the percentages of teachers who were married, unmarried, and divorced/widowed were approximately 87.4%, 9.7%, and 2.9%, respectively; and the percentages of teachers who did not teach or taught grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5 and grade 6 were 3.8%, 14.2%,15.2%, 16.2%, 17.6%, 15.7%, and 17.2%, respectively.

3.2. Instruments

3.2.1. teacher burnout.

Based on the Chinese Teacher Job Burnout Inventory developed by Wang and Xu (2004) [ 43 ], members of our group interviewed in-service teachers from primary and secondary schools and then made certain modifications to the items. The revised burnout scale included three dimensions, namely emotional exhaustion (EE, nine items), depersonalization (DP, six items) and reduced personal accomplishment (PA, four items), which were rated by teachers on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). At T1, the internal consistency coefficient was α = 0.91, and the construct validity indices were CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.05; at T2, these measures were α = 0.93, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.05, all indicating good and robust reliability and validity.

3.2.2. Psychological Capital

The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ) [ 44 ] was used to assess the psychological capital of teachers. Some expressions were adapted to suit the teaching profession (e.g., by modifying “company” to “school”). The PCQ included four subscales: hope (six items), resilience (six items), optimism (six items), and efficacy (six items). The test items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). In this study, the Cronbach’s α was 0.94, CFI = 0.90, and TLI = 0.88, indicating good internal consistency reliability and construct validity.

3.2.3. Professional Identity

Professional identity was assessed using the Teachers’ Professional Identity Scale [ 35 ]. This scale included four dimensions, occupational values (4 items), role values (6 items), sense of occupational belonging (3 items), and professional behaviour inclination (5 items). Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). In this study, Cronbach’s α was 0.96, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.90, indicating good internal consistency reliability and construct validity.

3.2.4. Positive Coping Style Questionnaire

Primary and secondary teachers with different teaching experiences were interviewed based on the Chinese version of the Coping Style Questionnaire developed by Xiao & Xu (1996) [ 45 ], and then certain modifications were made. The revised questionnaire consisted of four dimensions: positive problem solving, seeking help from others, positive view of the problem, and reasonable catharsis, with 15 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never use) to 4 (always use). The reliability and validity of the revised questionnaire were α = 0.89, CFI = 0.88, TLI = 0.86 among primary school teachers, which demonstrated good reliability.

All instruments were measured in accordance with teachers’ self-evaluation, and a test of common method bias was implemented using the Harman single-factor method. The results showed that a total of 14 factors with characteristic roots greater than 1 were extracted. The interpretation rate of the first factor was 32.26%, lower than the critical standard of 40%, indicating the absence of serious common method bias [ 46 ].

3.3. Procedure

The survey of teachers’ working status was commissioned to be conducted by the education administration of a district in Beijing. Prior to the survey, all schools and teachers in the district were briefed on the purpose of the survey and the benefits they would receive at the end of the survey (e.g., report of results, etc.), and were invited to participate voluntarily. The online assessment system remained open for one week, and the process was anonymous, voluntary, and confidential. If teachers wanted to participate in this survey, they could complete the test at their convenience by logging into the system from their computer or cell phone and could stop or opt out at any time. The ethical requirements of the subjects were fully considered during the data collection process.

3.4. Data Analysis

SPSS 26.0 statistical software (IBM, New York, NY, USA) was used for data management, descriptive statistical analysis and multivariate multinomial logistic regression analysis. Mplus 8 [ 47 ] was used for LPA and LTA.

In LPA, data fitting indices included AIC, aBIC, entropy, p(LMR), and p(BLRT). AIC referred to the Akaike information criterion, aBIC indicated the Bayesian information criterion calibrated by sample size, and entropy denoted the average information, which was an indicator of classification accuracy. Entropy ranged from 0 to 1, the closer to 1 the better, while values greater than 0.8 indicated good model fit [ 48 ]. p(LMR) referred to the significance level of Lo-Mondell-Ruben’s calibrated likelihood ratio test and p(BLRT) indicated the significance level based on the bootstrap likelihood ratio test.

In descriptive statistical analysis, the mean process was used to compute the mean value and standard deviation of every factor in each latent profile, and the ANOVA was used to analyse the mean difference of all latent profiles. Due to the large sample size of this study, the effect size η 2 was reported and η 2 > 0.01 indicated that the difference was significant [ 49 ].

In multivariate multinomial logistic regression analysis, compared with the reference profile, the odds ratio (OR) for other profiles under the effect of each factor was reported. When analysing the occurrence probability of each latent profile under the influence of resource factors, the reference group was “Low/no burnout” profile and an OR value greater than 1 meant that, under the influence of this factor, the probability of individuals falling into this profile is greater than that falling into the “Low/no burnout” profile. When analysing the influence of resource factors on the latent transition of each latent profile, the latent profiles at T1 were separated, and there were six logistic models. For each latent profile at T1, the teachers who stayed in the same profile at T2 were the reference group. The OR here referred to the ratio of the probability of transferring to another profile compared with that of staying in the original profile and an OR value greater than 1 indicated that the transition probability increased under the effect of this influencing factor. For each OR value, p < 0.05 (expressed in an asterisk) indicated that the OR value was significant. Furthermore, for each factor, there was a p -value (the last column) of the likelihood ratio test as a whole and p < 0.05 indicated that the factor had a significant influence on the outcome variables.

4.1. Latent Profiles of Burnout

Eight latent profile models were constructed with a number of categories ranging from 1 to 8. Table 1 presents the results of profile enumeration at T1 and T2. As shown in Table 1 , the LMR test suggested that the number of profiles did not exceed 7. The three-profile, six-profile and seven-profile solutions were supported by the entropy values at T1, while T2 featured solutions with two to six profiles. The AIC and aBIC values indicated that adding new categories improved model fit. Therefore, the 6- profile solution was best, and the results showed that the six profiles were consistent at T1 and T2. However, the 6-profile model featured a small profile that contained <5% of the sample. Thus, to avoid possible spurious profiles, two five-profile models were analysed and the results showed that the five profiles at T2 were consistent with the five profiles of Leiter & Maslach (2016) [ 16 ], but at T1 the five profiles hid the profile “EE&DP dominated burnout” (named “burnout” in Leiter & Maslach, 2016) which exhibited the smallest proportion, and highlighted the profile “highly ineffective” (never mentioned in Leiter & Maslach, 2016) which exhibited a relatively high proportion. That is, the proportion of these two profiles was small, but they both existed. These two profiles stood in opposition to one another and were reasonable in a theoretical sense [ 12 ], so the 6-profile solution was retained.

Fit statistics for latent profiles of teacher burnout at T1 and T2.

Note: aBIC = Bayesian information criterion calibrated by sample size; LMR = Lo-Mondell-Ruben’s calibrated likelihood ratio test; BLRT = Bootstrap likelihood ratio test.

Table 2 presents the mean values of each dimension for every profile, and a graphical display of the means can be found in Figure 1 . Based on the patterns observed in these figures, we labelled the six profiles as follows: (1) Low/no burnout, (2) Highly ineffective (very high in reduced PA, very low in the other two dimensions), (3) Ineffective instigated (high in reduced PA, moderate in the other two dimensions), (4) Exhaustion instigated (high exhaustion, moderate in the other two dimensions), (5) EE & DP dominated burnout (very high EE and DP, moderate in reduced PA), and (6) Burnout (high in all three dimensions). The variance analysis results ( F test and effect size η 2 ) showed that the differences in the mean of the six profiles at T1 and T2 were all very significant in all three dimensions. In the post test, the differences between any two profiles were significant, indicating that each profile was well distinguished, except for the means of reduced PA between the profile 1 and profile 4 at T2.

Six latent profiles of burnout at T1 and T2.

Mean of three dimensions in the six latent profiles.

4.2. Latent Transition among Profiles over Time

Burnout is a dynamic process [ 12 , 50 ], so the burnout profile of the same individual may differ over time. Table 3 presents the latent probabilities of individuals in certain profiles transferring to another profile from T1 to T2. The results showed that “Low/no burnout” individuals at T1 had a latent probability of 62% of maintaining this profile; “Highly ineffective” individuals at T1 had a latent probability of 60.1% of transferring to “Low/no burnout” at T2; “Ineffective instigated” individuals at T1 had a latent probability of 33% of maintaining this profile at T2 and latent probabilities of 24.6% and 21.3% of transferring to “Burnout” and “Highly ineffective”, respectively; “Exhaustion instigated” individuals at T1 had a latent probability of 43.7% of transferring to “Ineffective instigated” at T2 and 27% of maintaining this profile; “EE&DP dominated burnout” individuals had a latent probability of 29.2% of maintaining this profile and 24.3% of transferring to “Burnout” at T2; “Burnout” individuals had a latent probability of 30.9% of maintaining this profile and 23.9% of transferring to “Ineffective instigated” at T2.

Latent transition probability of each profile from T1 to T2.

4.3. The Effect of Resource Factors on Latent Profiles and the Transitions among Them

Table 4 presents the means and standard deviations of the three resource factors in each profile. The variance analysis results showed that the differences in the means of all six profiles with respect to the three resource factors were all very significant. “Low/no burnout” teachers performed best on these three factors. “EE&DP dominated burnout” teachers had the lowest values of psychological capital and professional identity. “Ineffective instigated”, “Burnout” and “Highly ineffective” teachers had relatively low mean values of positive coping.

Means and standard deviations of resource factors in each profile at T1.

Table 5 presents the OR for each profile under the effects of psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping, while individuals in the “Low/no burnout” profile served as the reference group. As shown in Table 5 , both psychological capital and professional identity decreased risks of being in the “Ineffective instigated”, “Exhaustion instigated”, “EE&DP dominated burnout”, and “Burnout” profiles. Under the influence of psychological capital or professional identity, compared with the “Low/no burnout” profile, the probabilities of being in these four latent profiles were significantly lower. Unexpectedly, professional identity increased the risk of being “Highly ineffective”. Under the influence of positive coping, the probability of being in the “High ineffective” profile was lower, while the probabilities in the other latent profiles were not significantly different from those in the “Low/no burnout” profile. That is, positive coping played a limited role in establishing individual burnout profiles.

The OR of the probability of each profile at T1 under the effects of resource factors.

Note: (1) * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; (2) the p -value in the last column referred to the significance of the likelihood ratio test as a whole for each factor and p < 0.05 indicated that the factor had a significant influence on the outcome variables.

Table 6 presents the OR of the transition from T1 to T2 with the effects of the three factors. The OR here refers to the ratio of the probability of transferring to another group compared with that of staying in the original group. The results showed that psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping all played important roles in alleviating burnout symptoms among teachers compared with maintaining their current profile.

The OR of transition from T1 to T2 with the effects of resilience and positive coping.

Note: (1) the rows were the latent profiles at T1, and the columns were the latent profiles at T2; (2) * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001; (3) a the number of individuals in this cell was less than five, the OR value was ignored; (4) the p -value in the last column referred to the significance of the likelihood ratio test as a whole for each factor and p < 0.05 indicated that the factor had a significant influence on the outcome variables.

Under the influence of psychological capital, “Low/no burnout” teachers had a significantly lower probability of transferring to other profiles (all ORs were significantly less than 1), while teachers in other profiles (e.g., Ineffective instigated, Exhaustion instigated and Burnout) had a significantly higher probability of transferring to “Low/no burnout” (all ORs were significantly greater than 1). In addition, “Highly ineffective”, “Ineffective instigated”, and “Exhaustion instigated” teachers had significantly lower probabilities of transferring to “Burnout” (OR = 0.03, 0.52, 0.05, respectively).

The effects of professional identity were similar to those of psychological capital, except for the effects of professional identity on the transitions from “Low/no burnout” and “Ineffective instigate” to “Highly ineffective”. Under the influence of professional identity, “Low/no burnout” and “Ineffective instigate” teachers had a significantly higher probability of transferring to “Highly ineffective”.

Under the influence of positive coping, “Low/no burnout” teachers had a significantly lower probability of transferring to “Ineffective instigated” and “Burnout” at T2 (OR = 0.52, 0.48, respectively). “Highly ineffective”, “Ineffective instigated” and “Burnout” teachers had a significantly higher probability of transferring to “Low/no burnout” (OR = 3.63, 2.20, 2.37, respectively). In addition, “Exhaustion instigated” teachers had a significantly lower probability of transferring to “Highly ineffective” and “Ineffective instigated” (OR = 0.08, 0.45, in turn), while “EE&DP dominated burnout” and “Burnout” teachers had a significantly lower probability of transferring to “Ineffective instigated” (OR = 0.15, 0.54, respectively). All of these transitions suggested that positive coping played an important role in reducing the occurrence of teacher ineffectiveness.

5. Discussion

Our study explored the latent profiles of teacher burnout and the question of whether these profiles could be differentiated based on their relations with individual resource factors, such as psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping. The results showed that there were six consistent latent profiles of teacher burnout with a meaningful difference in the whole study population at T1 and T2 and that teachers in one profile would transfer to another profile with a latent transition probability over time. It was demonstrated that the burnout dynamics and the temporal sequence of burnout symptoms varied across teachers, but that the same profiles were generally maintained on the whole. In addition, psychological capital and professional identity were important influencing factors in reducing the occurrence of teacher burnout and in increasing transition probability toward burnout symptom alleviation over time, while positive coping played an important role in reducing the occurrence of teacher ineffectiveness.

5.1. Profiles of Burnout—The Differential Roles of Individual Resource Factors

The present study using the LPA approach confirmed the first hypothesis that the same profiles existed at varying times throughout the whole study population and that the “Low/no burnout” profile accounted for the largest proportion of the sample (see Table 2 ). Specifically, two-wave longitudinal tests found that there were six well-distinguished stable latent burnout profiles, namely, “Low/no burnout”, “Highly ineffective”, “Ineffective instigated”, “Exhaustion instigated”, “EE&DP dominated burnout” and “Burnout”. The result of six latent profiles was similar to the five profiles developed by Leiter and Maslach (2016) [ 16 ]. The difference was that the present study distinguished the “Highly ineffective” profile, although the proportion of this profile was very small. This profile was similar to but different from the “Ineffective instigated” profile. As seen from the results of this study ( Table 3 ), when EE and DP were low, the symptom of highly reduced personal accomplishment was easily alleviated and there was a high latent transition probability to the “Low/no burnout” profile. However, the symptoms of “Ineffective instigated” were relatively difficult to alleviate and had a higher latent probability of transferring to the “Burnout” or “Highly ineffective” profiles. This result suggested that the median split method may obscure some important subtypes. Although these subtypes appeared to be similar, they may lend themselves to different intervention strategies. The ineffective profile (including both “Highly ineffective” and “Ineffective instigated”) reflects a psychological relationship with work, and it suggests that work-life experience was not at the same level of self-actualization. This profile was more prevalent among teachers in both tests (>20%), and it suggested that ineffectiveness (reduced PA) was actually a far more common experience among teachers; even if not yet well understood, this ineffective profile deserves more research attention [ 8 , 16 , 51 ].

Although the three symptoms of burnout have been widely accepted, their independence and dependence on each other have been debated [ 50 , 52 , 53 ]. In the present study, the ineffective profile (including “Highly ineffective” and “Ineffective instigated”) and the exhaustion profile (“Exhaustion instigated”) were identified, with the exception of a profile named “Depersonalization instigated” (high DP, low EE and reduced PA). Higher DP appeared only when EE was high (“EE&DP dominated burnout”) or when all three dimensions were high (“Burnout”), not in isolation. Leiter and Maslach (2016) [ 16 ] claimed to have discovered this profile, but it has not been found by other studies [ 17 , 54 ], including the profile study of teacher burnout [ 8 ]. In studies using the median split method, this profile existed, but in a very small proportion [ 12 ]. In this study, the mean value of this dimension was obviously lower than that of the other two dimensions, meaning that most teachers did not think that they treated students negatively and coldly. Whether this manifests differently in different occupations is unclear. However, depersonalization plays an important role in the development of teacher burnout [ 11 ], and the question of how to better identify depersonalization among teachers is an issue of concern. The most direct effect of depersonalization was the disruption of interpersonal relationships [ 55 , 56 ], and poor interpersonal relationships may also increase burnout [ 57 , 58 ]. Thus, an alternative way of identifying early symptoms of depersonalization may be to include interpersonal assessments in teacher evaluations.

This study adds to what is known about the impact of individual resource factors on the development process of teacher burnout. The results of this study concurred with the COR theory [ 29 , 30 ] and the JD-R model [ 31 , 32 ], suggesting that individual resources can reduce burnout symptoms. Previous studies have revealed the direct or moderating effects of psychological capital, professional identity, and positive coping on burnout [ 6 , 9 , 10 , 41 , 59 ]; however, the present study contributed to the burnout literature by showing that psychological capital and professional identity are important influencing factors in reducing the occurrence of teacher burnout and increasing the transition probability of each profile toward burnout symptom alleviation over time, while positive coping plays an important role in reducing the occurrence of teacher ineffectiveness.

Specifically, teachers with high psychological capital or high professional identity were more likely to be in the “Low/no burnout” profile and less likely to be in the “Ineffective instigated”, “Exhaustion instigated”, “EE&DP dominated burnout” and “Burnout” profiles. Additionally, during the development of individual burnout profiles, teachers had a significantly higher probability of transferring to “Low/no burnout” and had a significantly lower probability of transferring to “Burnout”. In other words, psychological capital and professional identity could not only reduce the occurrence of various burnout profiles, but also help teachers reduce burnout symptoms and avoid worse situations when burnout occurs. This effect was not obviously associated with different burnout profiles or burnout symptoms. Compared with psychological capital and professional identity, the role of positive coping in reducing the occurrence of various burnout profiles was limited; however, positive coping played an important role in improving the efficacy of teachers. Previous studies have not emphasized this point [ 6 , 41 ]. Of course, most previous studies have analysed the relationship between coping and teacher burnout in cross-sectional data, while no study has analysed the role of positive coping in the development of teacher burnout by using longitudinal data. As mentioned above, depersonalization is a form of dysfunctional coping that reduces the accomplishment of teachers [ 11 ]. Could positive coping improve teachers’ accomplishment? In an intervention study on coping strategies and socioemotional competence, participating teachers demonstrated an increase in positive coping strategies and a significant increase in personal accomplishment [ 41 ]. More longitudinal studies are needed to analyse the impact of positive coping on teacher effectiveness.However, there were two unexpected findings: professional identity was associated with the “Highly ineffective” profile compared to the “Low/no burnout” profile and was associated with the transition from the “Low/no burnout” profile to the “Highly ineffective” profile compared with staying in the low/no burnout profile. One possibility was that there was a high proportion of male teachers among the “Highly ineffective” profile (34%, compared with 18.9% in the total sample, 17.4% in “Low/no burnout” profile, and 22.7% in “Ineffective instigated” profile). Male teachers were more likely than female teachers to be in the “Highly ineffective” profile (OR = 2.44, p = 0.030) and were more likely to transfer from the “Low/no burnout” profile to the “Highly ineffective” profile (OR = 2.82, p = 0.048). When gender effects were present, higher professional identity did not increase the probability of teachers being in the “Highly ineffective” profile compared the “Low/ no burnout” profile (OR = 1.34, p = 0.232), but it still increased the probability of transition from the “Low/no burnout” profile to the “Highly ineffective” profile (OR = 5.10, p = 0.013). The second possibility was that the professional identity of teachers among the “Highly ineffective” profile was too high, even higher than teachers among the “Low/no burnout” profile ( Table 4 ). According to the environment perspective of job burnout, burnout occurs when individual goals and expectations are not successfully translated into actual value [ 55 , 60 ]. However, whether there are differences in burnout developmental trends between male and female teachers among the “Highly ineffective” profile and whether there is a covariant relationship between such trends and professional identity needs to be explored in future longitudinal studies with more time points and a larger sample.

5.2. Implications for Interventions

These profiles and the roles of individual resource factors could also have implications for interventions. As burnout interventions and rehabilitation are not always effective in treating severe chronic burnout [ 61 , 62 ], more emphasis needs to be placed on taking proactive measures to prevent burnout, for example, by distinguishing different burnout profiles [ 16 , 17 ] and improving individual resources [ 63 , 64 ].

For example, “Burnout” teachers exhibited low scores on all three resource factors, and an increase in each factor would help alleviate their burnout symptoms. “Ineffective instigated” teachers had high scores on professional identity but low scores on psychological capital and positive coping, so improving psychological capital and positive coping strategies among this group of teachers would be helpful. For “Exhaustion instigated” teachers, their relatively high positive coping scores prevented them from transferring to “Highly ineffective” and “Ineffective instigated” but had no obvious effect on the alleviation of exhaustion. They may need psychological capital intervention training or an increase in their recognition of the value of their teaching. The proportion of teachers who fell into the profiles of “Highly ineffective” and “EE&DP dominated burnout” was very small, and it was more important to distinguish the two profiles. The former group needs an increase in positive coping strategies, while the latter group needs an increase in psychological capital and professional identity. Besides, burnout is a very common issue among teachers, even in the recent context of COVID-19 [ 65 , 66 ]. We believed that our study may provide some suggestions for intervention for teachers suffering from burnout during the pandemic.

There have already been some intervention programs for teachers or other groups that have focused on these three resource factors [ 41 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. We can learn from these intervention programs to solve the problems of the five profiles of teacher burnout (except the “Low/no burnout” profile). However, we suggest that it is desirable to distinguish different burnout profiles before initiating targeted interventions, as burnout interventions are not always effective for different samples [ 61 , 62 ]. In addition, the reduced PA dimension has been more neglected in previous burnout research [ 16 ], while in the profile study of burnout, researchers proposed to pay attention to this dimension [ 16 ], which may be a more decisive symptom of burnout [ 17 ]. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that no matter how individual burnout profiles transfer over time, there are six relatively stable profiles of teacher burnout across the population for which corresponding intervention measures can be formulated (except the “Low/no burnout” profile). This approach has at least two advantages: one advantage is that doing so improves the effectiveness of intervention and constantly refines the intervention based on the effect of intervention; the other advantage is that doing so facilitates group intervention in one or more schools, saving educational costs and benefiting more teachers.

5.3. Limitations and Implications for Future Research

There were also some limitations in this study. First, our data consisted of primary school teachers, a female-dominated group; consequently, we cannot be sure that the same latent profiles of burnout and their transferring probabilities emerge in other groups of professionals. Therefore, the results of this study are applicable only to primary school teachers, and there is a need to replicate the profiles in the context of other professionals and to compare those groups with teachers in future studies. In addition, the study sample was from a district with strong educational level, whether the results of this study are applicable to other districts with relatively weak educational levels needs more comparative studies in the future. Second, the time-lags between measurements were not theoretically determined. Although a three-year time lag has been included in previous burnout studies [ 18 ], it is unknown whether this length of time best describes the burnout process among teachers. However, the temporal aspects of burnout are unclear, although some studies have suggested that burnout symptoms accumulate and develop over a long period [ 70 ]. In addition, there is some question as to whether the temporal aspects of burnout are related to occupation. This may be a question that needs to be answered once research on burnout development has been sufficiently enriched. Third, there are many factors affecting teacher burnout, including individual factors and situational factors (e.g., job-related factors, lifestyle and economic status, etc). The extension of the investigation of various individual or situational factors of teachers and the analysis of the main effect and coaction mechanism of these factors are necessary for future research. For example, this might include other risk factors or protective factors, and their possible interactions, that are in line with JD-R theory [ 31 , 32 ].

6. Conclusions

The present study used a person-centred approach in a longitudinal study on the development of teacher burnout and obtained certain valuable findings. There are six relatively stable latent profiles of teacher burnout and individual profile transfer to other profiles with a certain transition probability. Psychological capital and professional identity are important resource factors in reducing the occurrence of teacher burnout and increasing transition probability toward burnout symptom alleviation over time, while positive coping plays an important role in reducing the occurrence of teacher ineffectiveness. Our results emphasize the importance of understanding teacher burnout and its developmental process from the perspective of a combination of individual profile differences and overall profile consistency.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the teachers who participated in the study.

Author Contributions

Y.W. was PI for the project and M.X. contributed substantially to the work. M.X., L.K. and X.W. collected the data. M.X. developed the analytical plan and performed the analyses and wrote the paper. Y.W., S.H. and M.X. revised the paper and checked the grammar. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research was funded by the Major Program of National Social Science Fund of China, grant number 20&ZD153.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Teacher research is intentional, systematic inquiry by teachers with the goals of gaining insights into teaching and learning, becom­ing more reflective practitioners, effecting changes in the classroom or school, and improving the lives of children.... Teacher research stems from teachers' own questions and seeks practical solutions to issues in their professional lives.... The major components of teacher research are: conceptualization, in which teachers identify a significant problem or interest and determine relevant re­search questions; implementation, in which teachers collect and analyze data; and interpretation, in which teachers examine findings for meaning and take appropriate actions.... Teacher research is systematic in that teachers follow specific procedures and carefully document each step of the process. — " The Nature of Teacher Research " by Barbara Henderson, Daniel R. Meier, and Gail Perry

Teacher Research Resources

The resources below provide early childhood education professionals with tools to learn more about the teacher research process, explore accounts of teachers conducting research in their own classrooms, and connect with others in the field interested in teacher research.

Resources from  Voices of Practitioners

The Nature of Teacher Research Barbara Henderson, Daniel R. Meier, and Gail Perry

The Value of Teacher Research: Nurturing Professional and Personal Growth through Inquiry Andrew J. Stremmel

How To Do Action Research In Your Classroom: Lessons from the Teachers Network Leadership Institute Frances Rust and Christopher Clark

Resources From Other Publications

The resources listed here provide early childhood education professionals with tools to learn more about the teacher research process, explore accounts of teachers conducting research in their own classrooms, and connect with others in the field interested in teacher research.

American Educational Research Association (AERA) AERA encourages scholarly inquiry and promotes the dissemination and application of research results. It includes special interest groups (SIGs) devoted to early childhood and teacher research. Potential members can join AERA and then choose the Action Research or Teachers as Researchers SIGs (See “AR SIG, AERA” and “TR SIG, AERA” below.) AERA holds an annual conference with presentations of early childhood teacher research among many other sessions. www.aera.net

Action Research Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association (AR SIG, AERA) This group builds community among those engaged in action research and those teaching others to do action research. It offers a blog, links to action research communities, and lists of action research books, journals, and conferences. http://sites.google.com/site/aeraarsig/

Teacher as Researcher Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association (TAR SIG, AERA) This group consists of AERA members who are teacher educators and preK–12th grade educators; it aims to present teacher research at the AERA conference and elsewhere nationally. Early childhood teacher research is an important part of the group. http://www.aera.net/SIG126/TeacherasResearcherSIG126/tabid/11980/Default.aspx

The Center for Practitioner Research (CFPR) of the National College of Education at National-Louis University CFPR aims to affect education through collaborative scholarship contributing to knowledge, practice, advocacy, and policy in education. The website includes selected action research resources, including links to websites, book lists, conference information, and its online journal  Inquiry in Education . http://nlu.nl.edu/cfpr

Educational Action Research Educational Action Research  is an international journal concerned with exploring the dialogue between research and practice in educational settings. www.tandf.co.uk/journals/reac

Let’s Collaborate, Teacher Research from Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum This site includes useful supports for engaging in teacher research, including examples of K–12 research focused on science education. It offers information on starting a project, examples of teacher research projects, and links to online resources. www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) NAECTE promotes the professional growth of early childhood teacher educators and advocates for improvements to the field. NAECTE’s  Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education  occasionally publishes teacher research articles, including a special issue focused on teacher research (Volume 31, Issue 3). NAECTE also provides ResearchNets, a forum to foster educational research with teacher research presentations. www.naecte.org

Networks: An On-line Journal for Teacher Research at the University of Wisconsin A venue for sharing reports of action research and discussion on inquiry for teachers at all levels, this journal provides space for discussion of inquiry as a tool to learn about practice and improve its effectiveness. http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/networks

Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving your Practice through Collaborative Inquiry, Student Study Guide from Sage Publications This web-based student study site accompanies a book of the same name; it provides a wealth of information on its own for teachers or teacher educators who conduct studies of their own teaching practice. http://www.sagepub.com/samaras/default.htm

Teacher Action Research from George Mason University This site offers information about the teacher research process, including resources for carrying out teacher research studies. It also contains discussion of current teacher research issues and a comparison of teacher research to other forms of educational research and professional development. http://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr

Teacher Inquiry Communities Network from the National Writing Project (NWP) This network offers information on a mini-grant program supporting an inquiry stance toward teaching and learning. It includes information about the grant program, program reports, and examples of projects (including early elementary projects). http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/programs/tic

Teaching and Teacher Education This journal aims to enhance theory, research, and practice in teaching and teacher education through the publication of primary research and review papers. http://www.journals.elsevier.com/teaching-and-teacher-education

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TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL TEACHERS: A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

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Inclusive Teaching: Spotting Social Isolation in the Classroom

We evaluate an intervention designed to increase teachers’ awareness of social isolation by providing them with their own students’ social network and information on developmental risks associated with social exclusion. Using friendship data and incentive-compatible measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, we find that the intervention reduces social isolation and antisocial behavior without improving prosocial behavior. The reduction in antisocial behavior leads to better economic outcomes in treated classrooms, measured by average payoffs and the Gini coefficient. Our findings highlight the personal and communal benefits of alleviating social exclusion and antisocial peer relationships in schools.

The project has obtained IRB approval from Harvard University. We acknowledge financial support from the JPAL-European Social Inclusion Initiative. Marinella Leone also acknowledges financial support from European Union’s - Next Generation EU program through the Italian PRIN 2022, grant n.20228W79W3, CUP F53D23002980001. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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Integrating social policy dimensions into entrepreneurship education: a perspective from India

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• Michael Snowden   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1218-7434 1 ,
• Liz Towns-Andrews 2 ,
• Jamie P. Halsall 1 ,
• Roopinder Oberoi 3 &
• Walter Mswaka 4  

Social innovation and social enterprise are often supposed as methodological solutions to address multifaceted socio-economic problems, due to the sharing of ideas and their involvement of stakeholders from different sectors. This cooperative treatise (Ziegler in Innov Eur J Soc Sci Res 30:388–405, 2017) is striking to legislators across the political gamut. This research is therefore positioned within the broader literature on social innovation and its policy relevance; even though social innovation is not a novel thought, the application of social innovation as a policy idea and its part in relation to the restructuring of the prevailing welfare establishment has gained momentum in recent years. Hence, in their paper the authors will examine how social enterprise as a concept can act as a positive catalyst for influencing policy (i.e. public and social) in the developing world. To meet the overall aim of this paper, the authors employed a case study of India and applied a three-step approach, namely: (1) a literature review process that explored a variety of policy methods that can influence on the accomplishment and measurement of social enterprises; (2) a policy survey, which entailed desk-based searches of national and state-level policies, followed by stakeholder consultation queries to complement online results; and (3) qualitative interviews with stakeholders from government agencies and departments at national and state levels, including the Ministry of Finance, representatives of private industry, chambers of commerce, social investors, social enterprise networks, and advocacy leads. The research findings that are presented in this paper were funded by Delhi School of Public Policy and Governance, Institute of Eminence at the University of Delhi.

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Introduction

This paper presents an exploration of the various facets of the social enterprise ecosystem within India and how government, organisational, and institutional policies directly and indirectly impact social enterprises through specific targeted actions or by influencing the broader policy framework within which they operate. This can have either a positive or negative impact on the development of social entrepreneurship. When an organisational body specifically designed for social enterprises exists, it serves as a convenient ‘one-stop-shop’ for specific issues associated with social enterprise and provides a vehicle of support for social entrepreneurs. For example, the global organisation Social Enterprise Mark, which is an award-winning international social enterprise accreditation authority based in the UK that recognises and builds the capabilities of social enterprises as competitive, sustainable businesses, dedicated to maximising social impact (Social Enterprise Mark, n.d. ). The one-stop approach to social enterprise support provides a valuable support system for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs as they strive to create favourable ecosystems that support social enterprise growth and development though an holistic approach that considers the unique aspects of their business models.

Institutions internationally are increasingly acknowledging social enterprises as crucial partners in their pursuit of sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous societies. The significance of this was acknowledged in the Spring of 2023 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Social Inclusion (UN, 2023 ), emphasising the contribution that social enterprise can make towards attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Adoption of this unprecedented, unopposed resolution that calls upon institutions within the global community to support the development of social enterprise is a clear catalyst for the social and solidarity economy that placed emphasis on social justice.

However, social enterprise is in a state of infancy and is juxtaposed against the demands of the UNDP; this paper, therefore, addresses those facets of the social enterprise ecosystem within India and how Integration of social policy into entrepreneurship education facilitates understanding and application of social enterprise at institutional, regional, national, and international levels. The first assessment of the institutional context is broken down into three key components:

State Policy and Programmes: The assessment involves examining whether there is an established state policy, approach, action plan, or dedicated programme. These elements guide the overall direction and priorities within the institution.

Uniformity: The exploration considers legal, political, and professional standards to identify consistency and inconsistencies across administrative bodies and agencies.

Policy Framework: Understanding the policy framework requires the study of those processes that develop, implement, and monitor the institutional framework. A crucial element of this is the engagement and collaboration with relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries.

However, this cannot be simply broken down into a set of three steps. As identified by Oberoi et al. ( 2022 ), the nature of social enterprise is dynamic, multifaceted, and complex. Therefore, when assessing the interaction between institutional bodies (such as chambers of commerce) and social enterprises, several key factors influence the relationship. First, a clearly defined and informed institutional framework—whether through a nationwide policy, agreed strategic approach and plan, or a dedicated schemata—provides valuable support for social enterprise growth and development. In addition, statutory and legal frameworks that complement the policy contribute to feasibility and sustainability. Developing this framework creates a significant challenge for those disciplines that are embryonic. For example, it is well documented that the social enterprise knowledge base is poorly developed, that strategies, polices, and programmes are often untested, and that change adopted and implemented is frequently not built on an evidence base (Halsall et al., 2022a , 2022b ).

To ensure success, active engagement with other institutional bodies is vital. This involvement facilitates information sharing, connecting social enterprises and entrepreneurs with public and statutory agencies, formal and informal support networks, and financial providers. The statutory body itself can contribute by raising awareness through campaigns and by monitoring, assessing, and evaluating the implementation of social enterprise related strategies and development plans. In the Indian context, creating an enabling environment and recognising the government’s pivotal role in supporting the social enterprise sector are key considerations that influence success (British Council 2015 ; British Council 2016 ; British Council 2020 ).

Establishing a collaborative, collegial, coherent, and holistic framework to support the emergence and consolidation of social enterprises is crucial for maximising their social and economic impact. While the plans themselves are essential, policy approaches play an equally significant role. Effective policies are more likely to emerge when built through horizontal cooperation (across different administration portfolios) and vertical coordination (across various levels of administration), in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. This collaborative approach reduces the likelihood of anomalies leading to better policy consistency and overall effectiveness. The authors of this paper have identified four areas that are underrepresented within existing literature and are distinctly related to policy frameworks for innovation and social enterprise in India.

Social enterprises often operate at the juncture of different policy areas and disciplines. Consequently, their actions are entwined with various government ministries and agencies. Engaging in a collaborative dialogue with a broad range of relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries (perceived and actual) allows for a richer understanding of the presenting issues. This understanding contributes to the development of well-informed, real-world policies that effectively address emergent challenges and contribute to the sustainability and longevity of policies.

Legal frameworks play a crucial role in shaping policies. They can legitimise social enterprises and expand the legal definition of ‘enterprise’ to include entities that blend entrepreneurial approaches with social and environmental missions. The trend towards embracing legal and statutory frameworks reflects the enhanced interest in social enterprises and other entities of the social economy. These entities prioritise public and social interests and make a distinct contribution to specific policies (such as renewable energy and other green initiatives) and strategic priorities, including job creation, skills development, and public health initiatives for disadvantaged and marginalised groups. However, globally there is a reliance on working definitions (that are frequently poorly crafted) and criteria (embedded in strategies and action plans) to identify social enterprises.

The existent literature demonstrates a research topic in its infancy (Campopiano & Bassani, 2021 ; Farinha et al., 2020 ; Novak, 2021 ; Opuni et al., 2022 ; Winful et al., 2022 ) and characterised by four key themes that include social entrepreneurship, social movement, community development, and social innovation (Farinha et al., 2020 ; Winful et al., 2022 ). Academic research on social entrepreneurship has emphasised the social outcome of business activities that aim for value creation beyond profit maximisation (Campopiano & Bassani, 2021 ; Del Gesso, 2020 ). However, the research is dominated by the disciplines of Business and Management Studies; subsequently, the social impact of research is often understated (Snowden et al., 2023a ).

Social innovation is often seen as the opportunity for social enterprises to significantly invest in the creation of social outcomes to address people's needs. Social innovation and social enterprise are often proposed as a solution to address multifaceted social economic problems, by sharing ideas and involving stakeholders from different sectors. This cooperative treatise, as described by Ziegler ( 2017 ), presents an opportunity to legislators across the political spectrum.

Recent work carried out by the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency ( 2018 ) and Snowden et al., ( 2023a , 2023b , 2023c ) has illustrated that there are diverse aspects of social entrepreneurship, which have been influenced by international public policy in the context of social, economic, cultural, political, and sustainability agendas. Consequently, this has created a new emphasis on entrepreneurship, innovation, and social enterprise driven by the social justice and socio-environmental debate that has emerged strongly since the COVID pandemic. Nonetheless, it is this complexity that has resulted in conceptual challenges regarding the nature of social enterprise and its relationship with the social entrepreneur.

Social enterprise is not a new concept, but it is growing exponentially as illustrated by the post-pandemic abundance of academic literature on the rise of social enterprise (Chilufya et al., 2023 ; Halsall et al., 2022a ; Oberoi, 2021 ). This increased attention has been evident in a global context, as many governments across the world are shifting away from state-controlled, funded projects and moving towards a more social entrepreneurial approach. The emerging contemporary notions of social enterprise and the social entrepreneur are contributing to an identity and establishing some degree of clarity upon the nature and purpose of a social enterprise.

The impetus for this renewed vigour towards social enterprise is linked to the world adjusting to the demands of living in a post-COVID world (Oberoi et al., 2022 ). It is widely accepted that the global social welfare system is broken and traditional welfare models are ill-equipped to address the emerging social needs in the wake of the pandemic. As a result, there is a clear need for fresh, creative ideas to replace intransigent, archaic, and inflexible systems of welfare. Halsall et al. ( 2020 ) reaffirm this view, commenting that the traditional, rigid, institutionalised assumption of a two-sector economic model is being replaced with the view that social enterprise can provide a mitigating conduit to deal with the challenges associated with social and economic problems.

Social entrepreneurship is underpinned by strong social innovation. Despite social innovation’s long history, it remains relatively under-researched, leading to untapped opportunities (Farinha et al., 2020 ). For social enterprise to develop, it must be underpinned by strong social innovation, and ensuring the connection between social innovation and social enterprise is crucial because both address social and environmental challenges, aiming for positive change but are co-dependent on each other. These approaches provide innovative solutions for pressing issues such as poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, healthcare access, and education. By combining innovative creative thinking with practical solutions, they offer new ways to solve complex problems. Both social innovation and social enterprise prioritise long-term sustainability, moving beyond short-term fixes to address root causes. Collaboration and partnerships are essential, involving government agencies, non-profits organisations, industries, institutions, and communities collaborating towards shared goals, enhancing efficiency, scalability, and sustainability.

A contemporary popular definition for social enterprise is provided by the global organisation Deloitte ( 2018 ), which suggests that a social enterprise is an organisation that combines revenue growth and profit-making with a commitment to respecting and supporting its local community and stakeholders. A crucial element of this involves actively monitoring and adapting to the trends shaping the contemporary world or community and is built by collaborative (social) entrepreneurs who embrace their responsibility as good citizens and act as a model for others. However, this fails to acknowledge the complex and dynamic nature of social enterprise. A responsive definition is proposed within the literature that defines it as a multifaceted change process through which social entrepreneurs offer economic inclusion and social engagement to different global community and social groups through creative, solution-orientated strategies (Halsall et al., 2020 ; Oberoi et al., 2019 ). This recent definition provides and emphasises the importance of innovation underpinning social enterprise.

Contemporary social enterprise acquires a new significance that focusses upon providing innovative approaches to address pressing social needs and challenges reflected by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as poverty, inclusion, disparity, environmental degradation, gender equality, access to healthcare, social welfare and education, and innovative solutions all embracing the notion of social justice. Joining innovative thinking with well-designed innovative solutions will enable new ways of mitigating multifaceted problems to emerge. Social entrepreneurs are the altruistic, solutions-orientated, forward-thinking characters that develop social enterprises to go beyond short-term solutions and place emphasis on creating enduring solutions that address root causes of problems. Social entrepreneurs ensure, and by their very nature emphasise and firmly embed collaboration, co-participation, and partnership working. When developing an enterprise, they bring on key participants; for example, government agencies, non-profits organisations, industries, and communities are enlisted along with actual and potential beneficiaries, all working together towards shared goals. This collaborative alliance improves the efficiency, scalability, and sustainability of the innovation in a collegial approach that embraces entrepreneurial methods to design solution and encourage imaginative thinking. By applying business principles to social and environmental challenges, they foster innovation, adaptability, and creativity.

Social enterprises aim to be financially sustainable while concurrently creating social impact. They advance business models that make revenue through the sale of goods or services, reducing reliance on external funding sources. Distinctly, social enterprises empower people and groups by providing prospects for economic participation, skills development, and social inclusion. They often prioritise marginalised groups, permitting them to become dynamic givers to the social order and agents of change, while leveraging resources like human capital, technology, networks, and funding. The collaborative approach maximises the collective impact of efforts and has the potential to energise systemic change by challenging existing systems and structures and is able to provide a full spectrum of activities, ranging from conventional to hybrid organisations, serving as a catalyst for broader societal transformation.

How are social enterprises legally defined?

Unsurprisingly, the term ‘social enterprise’ is not commonly used in legal frameworks, policies, or literature; consequently, this lack of direct terminology poses a significant challenge for social enterprises. However, several countries do recognise new forms of entrepreneurship that align with the concept of social enterprise. De jure social enterprises (i.e. legally recognised practice and actions) are legally recognised under specific legal frameworks that establish clear legal forms and statuses to support their development—examples include the ‘solidarity enterprise of social utility [ entreprise solidaire d’utilité sociale ]’ (ESUS) in France, the ‘societal impact company’ in Luxembourg, and the ‘social cooperative’ in Poland—whereas de facto social enterprises are not legally recognised through specific social enterprise designations. However, they can still be identified based on their contributions to social challenges and adopt recognised social enterprise business models.

Social enterprises can adopt various authorised arrangements and statuses that reflect their unique characteristics, including their entrepreneurial and economic approaches, societal goals, and comprehensive governance and ownership structures (OECD, 2022 ). In a strict legal context, social enterprises represent an operational archetype (Caire & Tadjudje, 2019 ) reflected by the social cultural context in which they operate and those challenges the enterprise is attempting to mitigate.

While there are inconsistencies on legal definitions of social enterprises there are some key facets that are fundamental to the nature of social enterprises.

A corporate business model generates profit solely for owners and keeps operational for cost benefit deliberation and need to obtain other ventures in line with the principles of the business. However, the social enterprise model creates value not just for the business but is driven by social and environmental impact. Legal frameworks stipulate that social enterprises must explicitly pursue a defined social objective, and some nations limit the notion of flexibility and responsiveness by defining the arenas of engagement in which social enterprises are expected to function. For example, in Luxembourg, societal impact companies must respond to at least one pre-defined area of a 2016 Law on Societal Impact Companies (European Commission, 2020 ). Similarly, in Italy, the 1991 Italian Law on Social Cooperatives requires entities to be operational in at least one sector in an A-list of activities (well-being care, conservation protection, and improvement of cultural heritage) or B-list activities (organisations that conduct entrepreneurial activity oriented to job inclusion of underprivileged or disabled workers/individuals, irrespective of the area or areas) (OECD, 2022 ). Furthermore, some nations’ social enterprises are required to implement an asset lock to ensure their long-term social purpose and prioritise social impact in decision-making. The asset lock typically involves two mechanisms: restricting or limiting profit distribution to owners and ensuring that any surplus upon dissolution is transferred to a similar initiative. For instance, in the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, and Luxembourg, social enterprises are asked to maintain a limited asset or full asset lock in order to safeguard the longevity of the social purpose and clearly prioritise social impact within decision-making processes alongside a reproducible audit of decision-making processes (Fici 2015 ). In addition, there are defined limitations on the amount of profit that can be redistributed to the owners or staff within the social enterprise. A distinct component of some legal frameworks that enhance the spirit of social enterprise is the notion of inclusive governance. Some legal frameworks require the workforce to be part of the decision-making process within a social enterprise and for this to be clearly defined and auditable. For example, within France it is obligatory to involve stakeholders in some company choices (OECD, 2022 ).

Social enterprises are organisations that take diverse legal forms across nations to pursue both social and economic goals with an entrepreneurial spirit. From a global perspective, there a set of key commercial and societal fundamentals that can be used to define social enterprises:

Social enterprises are distinct from orthodox for-profit organisations which are outrightly involved in the production and/or sale of goods and services (instead of chiefly advice-giving or grant-giving occupations);

Social enterprises are designed and fulfilled by groups of citizens and community members;

Social enterprises typically sell products and/or deliver services to members of the public and private users to produce their revenues;

Social enterprises operate in the monetary economy, and use non-commercial resources to become sustainable and;

They share a social dimension in their entrepreneurial goals, which should be based on a distinct social interest and based on unmet needs or presented and established within a legislative model (OECD, 2022 ).

Social entrepreneurship and social enterprises have existed for decades (John et al., 2024 ). The development and advent of social enterprise have taken diverse routes in different geographic areas in the world but can still be grouped according to two foremost schools of thought. One is the market-based or commercial social enterprise arrangement, and the second is more of a blended or hybrid-based form of social enterprise. The market-based formula emerged prominently in North America and Africa, while the hybrid-based plan was adopted more in European and Latin American countries. Haarich et al. ( 2020 ) propose that legal frameworks can be an authoritative tool to foster and bolster social enterprise expansion and, where these are in place, social impact is more accurately measured.

The recent report published by the European Commission ( 2020 ) identifies approximately 397 000 social enterprises among European Union member states. For example, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Hungary have over 1,600 social enterprises per million residents, while Estonia, Malta, and Greece have much less than 500 (European Commission, 2020 ). In comparison, India has around 2,000,000 social enterprises and the UK 100,000 (John  et al., 2024 ). However, this data does need to be reviewed with caution. As illustrated, there are numerous descriptions of the nature of social enterprise and inconsistencies in legal recognition for social enterprises between nations and regions.

Nonetheless, governments are increasingly looking towards external agencies to solve social and economic problems in society (Khan & Halsall, 2017 ; Oberoi et al., 2021 ). Globally, an era of social enterprise is gaining momentum and is prevalent in many debates within businesses, society, and educational institutions. However, for this to progress in an informed and systematic way, there is need for a strategic realignment of policy with key social enterprise dimensions that will be shaped by five factors:

Political Environment: The administration’s role significantly influences the emergence of social enterprises. When societal issues align with administrative priorities, natural synergies arise, especially in the context of the neoliberal paradigm.

Legal Environment: Like traditional private enterprises, social enterprises require an iterative process of refining knowledge and execution. A supportive legal environment—one that avoids excessive regulation and unwarranted oversight—facilitates this progression.

Social Environment: Favourable social and cultural conditions are essential for nurturing social entrepreneurs. A strong civil society and focus on socio-economic challenges contribute to the development of social enterprises.

Cultural Environment: The enthusiasm of civil society plays a crucial role in the rise of social enterprise. Often, social entrepreneurs emerge from within civil society, responding to socio-economic issues with innovative approaches.

Institutional Environment: To advance social enterprises from emergence to maturity, institutional support is critical. Curricula in academic institutions can prepare novice social entrepreneurs with knowledge and networks.

Despite the challenges in defining the nature and legal basis of social enterprises, they undoubtedly play a vital role in addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. Applying this observation to the Indian context, there are four key issues that run concurrently with these factors that demand the realignment of policy and social enterprise dimensions:

The legal status of social enterprises is not clearly defined, generating issues with credibility and authenticity, which in turn undermine the development of policy and strategy.

Regarding sustainability, governments must foster an environment that encourages social entrepreneurship and innovation. India (not is isolation) faces a distinct challenge in this area.

The review of literature reveals that social enterprise in India lacks a comprehensive policy framework for understanding the complexities of the phenomenon and its determinants.

There are no clear-cut guidelines of how to improve and enhance social enterprise activities across the nation. The distribution of social enterprise is geographically inconsistent.

Methodological approach to the research

This research is positioned within broader literature on social innovation and its policy relevance. Even though social innovation is not a novel concept, the application of social innovation as a policy idea and its relationship to the restructuring of the prevailing welfare establishment is synonymous with the development of social enterprise.

Embracing the spirit of social innovation was a key feature of the methodological approach adopted in this study. The involvement of partners, prospective partners, and actual and potential beneficiaries is essential to reflect the philosophical basis of social enterprise and to provide a cross cultural and social representation of each community as part of the research and evaluation process. This will provide the firm foundation towards enabling the attainment of the study’s objectives. This study utilised an embedded a case study approach, drawing upon the approach illustrated by Yin ( 2018 ).

The case study approach is used when evaluating and exploring the nature of underlying issues with reference to an identified phenomenon (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ; Yin, 2018 ). The case study approach is the most appropriate to explore the underlying factors perceived to influence a key phenomenon under investigation and is particularly useful when the phenomenon is an under-researched subject. This approach was particularly suited to this study as it reflects the emerging and contemporary phenomenon of social enterprise, enabling the development of an explanation and the exploration of the causal relationships of underlying determinants influencing the development of social enterprise (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ). This enabled the detailed exploration of those factors that influence the determinants of social enterprise and its flexibility; it also allowed the perceptions of participants to be included, and this flexible research design enabled the researchers to evaluate the strengths and limitations of the subject studied in context. A case study effectively addresses the ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ of events, experiences, phenomena, and data collected in the process, each crucial features of this research. Enabling the researchers to gather information, understand processes, and explore reasons, and thereby facilitating effective and deeper understanding of the various facets of social enterprise and policy development within the Indian context.

Specifically, the research team adopted a mixed methods and exploratory embedded multiple case study design approach proposed by Yin ( 2018 ) was utilised as this specifically offers an insight to the micro-cultural and socio-economic and political influences upon policy development. It is this aspect of the case study that resonates with the aspirations of the study, referring, as Yin asserts, to multiple sources of evidence enables researchers to capture the perspectives of different data sets and participants, focussing on how their different meanings illuminates new perspectives (Yin, 2018 ) is appropriate for the research.

Conceptual framework

The following illustrates the processes that were undertaken to establish a model of change to promote an understanding of the policy framework, the role, forms, practice, and value of learning within social enterprise, and how this could contribute to the development of a policy framework for innovation and social enterprise in India. The model comprises a four-step cyclical process that involves assessment, solutions-orientated problem solving, implementation, and reflection and evaluation (Snowden et al., 2023a ):

Assessment—comprises a holistic method of data collection from all available sources. For the purpose of this study, this involved:

Semi-structured and focus interviews of key beneficiaries (actual and potential) and stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, statutory agencies, community members, social entrepreneurs, and representative of social enterprise groups and agencies.

A desk top review using a systematic method to assess existing research, policy, and curriculum documentation for information relevant to parameters of this study.

Online survey of actual beneficiaries and stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, statutory agencies, community members, social entrepreneurs, and representative of social enterprise groups and agencies.

Solutions-orientated problem solving—involves the development and design of recommendations and solutions to problems and challenges identified from data collected in the assessment phase.

Implementation—is an active phase delivering the solutions to the research questions presented. This stage involved: an initial dissemination of findings; peer review; design of recommendations, strategy materials, and policy based on the evaluation and analysis of data collected.

Reflection and evaluation—this required holistic evaluation and testing in addition to harnessing the reflective elements of Kirkpatrick’s model (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016 ).

Data collection and analysis

The following methods were used for the data collection:

Document review

Document review within this study includes all publicly available policy, curriculum, and practice documents. The purpose of performing document analysis is to inquire in what ways and to what extent literature is presented and if it is visibly accurate and representative. A systematic approach was used to frame the document review. Documents included specific guidelines aimed exclusively at social enterprises and those additionally associated more broadly towards social enterprise, social innovation, and allied fields such as small and medium enterprise (SME) policy, and policy intents and achievements/failures each within the context of India. The data collected were used to inform and provide a meticulous summary of available data in relation to the research question and objectives of the study. Prior to analysis, data that met the criteria for the study were analysed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool approach. Using content analysis (Krippendorff, 2019 ) enabled inferences to be developed regarding the content within the texts analysed.

Online survey

An online questionnaire was developed to identify those key features of social enterprise that have been influenced or constrained by developments and policies within India. Each of the questions was developed by data identified in the literature review and in consultation with the research team. The purposive sample included key beneficiaries (actual and potential) and stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, statutory agencies, community members, social entrepreneurs, and representative of social enterprise groups and agencies within India. Overall measures of the importance of the different dimensions of influence were calculated using the descriptive statistical method ‘relative importance index’ (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ), and free-text responses were analysed using content analysis.

The interview method is highly recommended when the focus of the study is to explore the meaning associated with a particular phenomenon (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ). For the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews and semi-structured focus groups were conducted. Interview questions were informed by the literature/desk top review, the results of the online survey, and agreed within the research team. While semi-structured interviews were considered to be the most appropriate method for data collection, as this enabled the curation of views on the perspectives explored, to enhance the credibility and replicability of the study, focus groups were also conducted. This dual approach to collecting qualitative data allowed within the focus groups a sense of greater security, where the group dynamic allowed participants to build on one another's responses and generate ideas that they might not have thought of in an individual interview. Furthermore, the strategy of conducting the focus groups first provided the opportunity to follow up issues and perspectives into more detail from a single perspective.

In evaluative studies, the quality of the information collated is dependent upon the quality of the interview process; to ensure consistency, an interview guide was developed using the principles of PROMPT (Open University, 2024 ) and key suppositions based on the experiences and wisdom of the participants and available literature. This exercise contributed to the validity and credibility of the data collection tools within the evaluative framework (Robson & McCartan, 2016 ). Purposive sampling was used to conduct a series of 34 interviews and 14 focus group interviews. Data collected from both focus groups and interviews were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006 ), transcribed verbatim, coded, and used to analyse similar and comparative themes or patterns to establish key findings.

Results from the survey

The survey posed 10 key questions:

Question 1: What is the scope of social entrepreneurship, especially in a price sensitive market like India ?

The responses (65%) indicate that many feel the scope for social enterprises is huge but that new social enterprises face fundraising challenges. Market competition hinders the growth of social enterprises and catering to Indian market. 50% of the respondents suggested that social enterprises need to price their products/services at a cheaper cost than competitors but this leads to issues with sustainability.

Question 2: Do you see a growing trend in inclination towards social enterprises among Indian youth?

Generally, the participants (70%) perceived that the youth is generally more aware about the environmental and social issues, and are able to understand the role of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. Participants suggested that there is a sense of responsibility in the younger generation and imply that this group is more innovative and environmentally conscious, so they are more aware of the social enterprise concept as it blends social and economic strategy to respond to social challenges.

Question 3: Are there any incentives and schemes by the Indian and state governments to encourage social enterprise?

Many participants (75%) expressed that, over the past 10 years, the government has been encouraging and continues to encourage social innovation, technological solutions, and a number of schemes have been announced during the past decade to support young entrepreneurs, such as Avishay Capita, Atal Innovation Mission, Support for International Patent Protection in Electronics & Information Technology (SIP-EIT), National Skill Development Corporation, Start-Up India Programme, MeitY Start-up Hub, Start-Up India, and the Stand-Up India Scheme.

Question.5: What could the government or society do to encourage social entrepreneurship?

The respondents had many suggestions that could be taken up by the government and society to encourage and promote social entrepreneurship in the country:

The provision of incentives and financial aid to new social enterprises.

Launching courses and education programmes in schools and universities to raise awareness regarding the concept of social entrepreneurship.

Setting up incubation centres and innovation centres across the country.

The provision of tax benefits to new social enterprises, at least in their initial years.

People, as a society, need to support small-scale social enterprises over large-scale manufacturing houses who are able to provide goods and services at lower costs.

Question 6: What are the main barriers to the development of social entrepreneurship in India?

The overwhelming response was that issues linked to funding are the most critical barrier. There is also lack of awareness among participants about how to harness support for innovative ideas; educational institutions have not been teaching social enterprise courses, and complex regulatory frameworks and bureaucratic procedures are significant barriers in conjunction with a lack of skill and capability development programmes and capacity building. Some participants highlighted that they had opportunities provided by a local university; however, these were not experienced by all.

Question 7: Should the concept of social entrepreneurship and innovation be incorporated into the education curricula?

The response was distinct; it was clear that the participants viewed universities as having a role in challenging the old paradigms of business schools that prioritise profit maximisation. Higher education institutions (HEIs) were viewed by some as engaging with the social enterprise sector in order to discover sustainable solutions for concerns around economic and social disparity and justice. However, this was found to be regionally disparate. All participants agreed that universities should be promoting knowledge and understanding of social enterprise.

Question 8: Do you think the concept of social enterprise requires additional skill development training programmes in higher education settings?

Universities were perceived as income generators within a local community, and most importantly, are seen as a hub between different institutions (public, private, and non-government organisations). Each participant commented that additional skills are needed to fulfil the role of the social entrepreneur.

Question 9: Is the emergence of social enterprise a potential alternative development channel to rapidly shifting Indian policies?

Rich and uniform answers were provided as a response to this question. Participants viewed the growth of social enterprise as significant over recent years. In particular, uniformly they viewed social enterprise as demonstrating spectacular growth in India, with the country being referred to as ‘a social enterprise superpower’ by Think, a social action think-tank and action hub, as well as ‘a hotbed for social enterprise’ by Beyond Profit magazine, a leading social enterprise magazine. Social enterprises have been extremely effective in driving development in India, which is home to one of the world’s largest populations still living in poverty.

Question 10: Indian Social enterprises are very active but operate as NGOs, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or foundations, in the absence of any legal definition that could form a basis for policy dialogue. Do you agree with this?

In spite of India having a legal form that closely mirrors the social enterprise model, 80% of the survey respondents reported that they operate as private limited

companies and they find the lack of legal clarity a huge hurdle. There is growing diversity in the way social enterprises are being registered, with participants commenting that this lack of clarity dilutes their social mission.

Findings from the literature review

The survey findings mirrored what was found within the literature. Social enterprises are perceived as positive change agents; they offer the latest methodologies, innovative solutions, and novel conceptual frameworks. Social enterprises attend to social issues and support marginalised and disadvantaged people by developing innovative community-centred methods to resolve challenging issues. Many understand social enterprise as a transformational trend in the progression towards making standard for-profit enterprises that change themselves to generate social value. Opuni et al. ( 2022 ) present the view that, in a local community context, social enterprises create opportunities and can have a real impact in the geographical area (e.g. in tackling poverty, and in employment, education, and environmental issues).

While reviewing the literature, government programmes, and policy supporting the social enterprise sector were found to be too recent to provide evidence of long-term impact. However, there are early results from adaptations to selected local contexts in developing countries that can inform policy design for those governments that are considering the social enterprise agenda as part of their strategy to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Indian social enterprises are very active but operate chiefly as NGOs, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or foundations. Enterprises operate in the absence of legal definitions or even a commonly shared operational definition that could form the basis for policy dialogue among the various stakeholders. Nonetheless, India has commenced a policy dialogue around the social enterprise sector and has recently adapted policy sections that provide a vehicle for engaging with social entrepreneurs. A special social enterprise section has been included within the Enterprise Policy, adopted in 2015 by the Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship. It provides 14 definitions and specifies forms of support for social enterprises, which includes higher education courses, fiscal incentives for social investment, incubation, grassroots technology hubs, and engagement on innovation with existing entities such as the National Innovation Foundation. Despite the government promoting an ecosystem to encourage social business, impact investment, and social enterprises, the on-the-ground realities of running a social venture remain daunting. However, these changes are pointing to a bright future for India's social entrepreneurship scene.

With an estimated two million social enterprises in India, it is one of the most dynamic social entrepreneurship environments globally. In their 12th Five Year Plan (2012–2017), the Government of India ( 2011 ) accorded priority to Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (Bop) focussed enterprises and social good ventures by declaring the period between 2010 and 2020 as the ‘decade of innovation’. The government is committed to helping social enterprises in capacity building by investing seed capital through a fund called the India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF) in areas of healthcare, energy, urban infrastructure, water, and transportation. IIIF has been capitalised to INR 5000 crores (USD 780 million) and was to be allocated to social enterprises over the 10-year period starting 2010; 20% of a social venture’s funds came from this fund while the remaining 80% will have to come from private investors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted the critical significance of strengthening systems and building resilience across communities—principally among those living in severe scarcity and who are most at risk during these major disruptions. A social innovation approach puts competence to harness innovation at the hub of community solution orientate problem solving. However, this necessitates a distributed and dispersed arrangement where innovation and social enterprise connects through networks. Halsall et al.( 2020 ) assert that in addition to developing the traditional learner-teacher relationship, pedagogical restructuring needs to take place in regard to social entrepreneurial skill development and that this should take two forms: (1) changes in the curriculum, and (2) changes in the techniques of teaching and learning. The illustration by Snowden et al. ( 2023a , 2023b , 2023c ) presents a conceptualisation of this remodelling of enterprise education, which is developing at various levels globally, as illustrated by the UK—the India Research Initiative ( 2019 ) annual report, the Developing Inclusive Creative Economies (DICE) ( 2019 ), and the British Council ( 2016 ).

Two projects illustrate how this remodelling is influencing the development of social enterprise. The first is a collaborative project between Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, and the University of Huddersfield. This project formed a collaboration and works in partnership with several stakeholders, including new and existing social enterprises, and has developed a series of educational tools and packages that have advanced social enterprise within a number of different contexts. The second example is the Tamil Nadu Polytechnic College, Madurai, India, project. The aim of this project was to promote the use of ICT and smart classrooms to enhance teaching and learning. This project achieved success via a 30% improvement in teaching materials, a 40% increase in staff using integrated teaching methods, a 40% increase in acquisition of knowledge outside traditional sources of information, and a 10% overall increase in academic performance. Undoubtedly, a symbiotic relationship must develop between social enterprise to be successful, and indeed for HEIs to fulfil their role successfully.

The following assumptions were made about what policy is potentially relevant to social enterprises:

Policies or programmes affecting or targeting SMEs have the potential to include some social enterprises.

Policies and plans influencing organisation registering and governance of organisations and enterprises have the potential to influence social enterprise, given that they register in multiple forms.

Policies or programmes targeting low income and disadvantaged groups in terms of improving their livelihoods and/or access to social services have the potential to influence some social enterprises.

Policies or strategies deliberating financial growth, industrial expansion, sector-level development, or social development have the potential to affect social enterprises.

Qualitative findings

The results from focus group discussions bring out common concerns that were reflected and emphasised by further probing in the individual interviews, reaffirming the reliability of the findings. Participants expressed the consistent view that the social enterprise situation in India has changed considerably in recent years and was dynamic in response to societal trends. The participants were asked about the major objectives for setting up a social enterprise. The most frequently specified aim of social enterprises in the focus group discussions was generating employment (70% of participants), followed by social inclusion (45% of participants), improving health (40% of participants), protecting the environment (40% of participants), addressing social exclusion (40% of participants), supporting agriculture and allied activities (36%), empowering women (35%), promoting education (40% of participants), and supporting vulnerable groups (23% of participants).

At present, though the Indian government has supported social entrepreneurs there are still substantial funding challenges, meaning they often fail to secure start-up capital. There are a limited number of financial institutions that lend financial support to social entrepreneurs, as they hold a misconception that these organisations are not profitable. Participants were invited to propose how social entrepreneurship could be improved, the data collected identified three themes:

Enhancing and expanding research and education on social enterprise and social economy in schools and universities, which might help to develop both local knowledge and the talent pipeline.

Encouraging private and public procurement channels to be more inclusive, enabling the procurement of services and goods from social enterprises that impart social and environmental value.

The creation of incentives for funding and investment.

It is evident from each data set that there are significant growth plans for social enterprise; for example: the majority of surveyed social enterprises is looking to enlarge their scope, reach new areas, and increase their customer base by developing new products and services. A disturbing observation notable in both the literature review and commentary from participants was the barrier associated with recruitment. The foremost recruitment challenge was perceived to be finding and retaining junior to mid-level talent, with a lack of awareness and understanding of social enterprise identified as key contributory features. Respondents were asked during the interview discussions about funding and finance they have received since they started operating. The nature of funds received primarily consist of funding from the government; endowments from foundations; indentures from the government; fees, sales, and charges; and aids—cash and in-kind (e.g. apparatus, volunteer time, etc.). The nature of finance received comprised of: capital grants; concessional loans (loans with below-market interest rates); commercial finances (market interest rate loans); and equity or equity-like investments. Of the respondents surveyed, 40% count on grants from foundations, and 28% of social enterprises got funds from philanthropists and charities; capital grants (24%); commercial loans (27%); funding from government schemes (25%); contracts from governments (18%); and concessional advances lower than the market rate (14%).

There is a significant variance between the funding of social enterprises and conventional commercial organisations. Of the social enterprises surveyed, 40 faced difficulties gaining access to investors due to inadequate networks. This was significant in some areas, where support establishments are rare and social enterprises are limited. For example, there is significant social enterprise presence in Maharashtra and Karnataka as compared to Utter Pradesh or North East states. Nearly 30% of the social enterprises recognised a lack of access to debt/equity as a key stumbling block. New social enterprises are moving to repayable finance to establish and expand their businesses. New generation social enterprises are also tapping into diverse, non-traditional funding sources; for example: crowd funding, using social media like Facebook’s ‘internet.org;’ social loans from Milap (an online micro-lending platform); and educational institutions and consortia, etc.

An incidental issue that raised during the interviews was related to incorporation of the concepts of social entrepreneurship and innovation within high school curricula. The perception of the participants encouraged incorporation and encourage students to explore new business ventures that provide self-employment opportunities as well as enabling them to contribute to developing solutions to social problems; for example, by improving health outcomes that exploit innovative approaches. Indian social enterprises are very active but operate as NGOs small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), or foundations, and lack legal definition that could form a basis for policy dialogue. A legal definition of a social enterprise would promote a self-sustaining model that could generate the financial resources to support operations, but also to enhance scalability, develop awareness, and promote social enterprise as a career option alongside the more commonly recognised professions.

The Government of India is making positive steps towards this by promoting incentives and schemes by Indian and state governments:

The central government's Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) was established to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout India. It consists of programmes that support and fund social entrepreneurs, such as Atal Incubation Centres, Atal Tinkering Labs, and Atal New India Challenges.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) supports social entrepreneurs operating in industries like healthcare, agriculture, and renewable energy with funding and training. The NSDC focuses on skill development.

Start-Up India is a programme that intends to promote the development of new businesses, especially social enterprises. It offers advantages like tax breaks, simplified compliance procedures, and access to investment through several government-backed programmes like AIM and Fund of Funds for start-ups.

While government initiatives and schemes provide a foundation of support, additional resources and partnerships are typically necessary. There are few incentives and schemes by the governments at either national or state levels to encourage social enterprises. The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) was set up NITI Aayog in 2016, which aims to promote the innovative and entrepreneurial mindset among school and university students, and the private and MSME sectors across the nation. AIM is mandated to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India. Through Atal Incubation Centres—or AICs—at universities, institutions, and corporations, AIM is creating an ever-evolving ecosystem of start-ups and entrepreneurs. These business incubation centres aim to foster and support world-class innovations and dynamic entrepreneurs, who want to build scalable and sustainable enterprises. To date, AIM has successfully operationalised 69 AICs in 18 states and 3 Indian union territories. These AICs support incubated start-ups by providing world-class technical facilities, resource-based support, mentorship, funding support, partnerships and networking, co-working spaces, and laboratory facilities, among other modes of support. More than 2,900 start-ups have been supported by these AICs, of which 900 + start-ups are led by women and have created 30,000 + jobs in the ecosystem. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MEITY’s) Start-up Hub (MSH): MSH acts as a national coordination, facilitation, and monitoring centre that integrates all the incubation centres, start-ups, and innovation-related activities of MEITY, which aims to promoting technology innovation, start-ups, and the creation of intellectual property. 3. Start-Up India’s Stand-Up India scheme launched on 15 August, 2015; Start-Up India is a flagship initiative of the Government of India, intended to catalyse start-up culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India. In most cases, social enterprises do need external aid, whether in the form of capital or mentorship, mostly due to lack of education about the concept and lack of financial aid schemes.

The Indian government has announced policies and 63 incentives, such as the AIM and Start-Up India schemes, to support social entrepreneurship. The UK has a vigorous legal framework for social enterprises, with the Community Interest Company (CIC) structure explicitly intended for them. The UK government has executed numerous policies and programmes, including the Social Value Act and Social Investment Tax Relief, to endorse and support social enterprises. Funding and Investment: India: Impact investment and social finance in India are rising, but access to investment for social enterprises can still be challenging, particularly for early-stage ventures. Old-style funding sources, such as banks and venture capitalists, have limited exposure to the social enterprise sector.

India has seen the emergence of incubators, accelerators, and support organisations focussed on social entrepreneurship. These organisations provide mentoring, networking opportunities, and capacity-building programmes for social enterprises. However, the ecosystem is still evolving and expanding. Nonetheless, India's social enterprise sector is growing rapidly, and the government is increasingly recognising and supporting social entrepreneurship. With the right policies and support, India has the potential to further strengthen its social enterprise ecosystem and increase its impact. A much-neglected area, as highlighted in this study, is the importance of education—in particular, the role that higher education institutions can play.

Recent studies (Halsall et al., 2022b ; Snowden et al., 2023b , 2023c ) highlight the value of delivering a curriculum that will develop the key skills and qualities of a social entrepreneur. Halsall et al. ( 2022b ) and Snowden et al. ( 2023b ) present six components of a proposed social entrepreneurship curriculum and recommend that they should be delivered within a heutagogical approach. The six characteristics include:

Institutions—structures of rules and norms that develop social change in society. In this context, an institution is a personal business, governmental, or education establishment. Here, institutions are, overall, seen to have an important effect on citizens in society.

Stakeholders—key individuals and organisations contributing to social enterprise, for example this may include: learners, i.e. those who want to learn the skills associated with social enterprise; educators, i.e. those who ‘teach’ or facilitate learning about social enterprise; entrepreneurs, i.e. those who are contributing to society and developing social enterprise.

Teaching and Learning—a process whereby the learner gains skills and understanding.

Personal Skills and Capability—a framework for skills and knowledge growth from a social entrepreneur development perspective.

Curriculum—centrally driven by knowledge, practices, and critical engagement.

Work Placement—a period in which the learner can experience expertise in the employment or specific sector they want to enter.

The data collected from the study also demonstrate that despite the importance of social enterprise in society, students are still studying theories as opposed to acquiring practical skills. Hence, there is an urgent need to encourage students to learn by doing, and to develop an understanding of how to collaborate and engage with each other to address social problems. As emphasised by Halsall et al. ( 2022a , 2022b ), engagement can only take place if the stakeholders, both actual and perceived, engage in the transformational process, providing opportunities to acquire the capability and skills through work-based learning and internship opportunities alongside constructive mentorship are offered.

However, education must also take place in practice. Strengthening of the emerging social enterprise ecosystem is achieved by:

The development of capacity building and entrepreneurship support. Developing entrepreneurship and incubation programmes that focus on social enterprise development; the provision of training, mentorship, and technical assistance to social entrepreneurs is key to this.

The promotion of partnerships between academic institutions, incubators, and industry experts to offer specialised courses and programmes on social entrepreneurship and social innovation would develop social entrepreneurs’ capability, skills, and knowledge base.

Encouragement of a community of praxis via the development of support networks and platforms that facilitate knowledge sharing, collaboration, and peer learning among social entrepreneurs and innovators.

While from a more strategic viewpoint this ecosystem can be strengthened by:

The introduction of policies that promote social enterprise and that encourage social procurement by encouraging government agencies and corporations to prioritise procurement from social enterprises rather than multinational corporations. This should include the simplification and creation of transparent procedures that allow social enterprises to access government tenders and contracts, providing them with fair opportunities to compete. Encourage corporations to include social enterprises in their supply chains and foster partnerships between social enterprises and private sector entities.

Impact Measurement and Reporting: The development of standardised frameworks and guidelines for the measurement and reporting of social impact, ensuring consistency and comparability across social enterprises. Support and training should be provided to social enterprises to build their capacity in impact assessment, monitoring, and evaluation, and the adoption of impact measurement tools and technologies should be encouraged to enhance accountability and transparency.

Collaboration and knowledge-sharing platforms should be established to connect social enterprises, government bodies, academia, civil society organisations, and traditional businesses to create a robust social innovation ecosystem. Dedicated social innovation centres and incubation hubs should be established across the country, providing physical spaces, mentorship, and networking opportunities for social entrepreneurs.

Research and development in social innovation should be promoted, with the support of partnerships between universities, research institutions, and social enterprises to enable them to address pressing social challenges.

Implementing these policy suggestions can create an enabling environment for social enterprises and social innovation in India, driving inclusive economic growth and sustainable development while addressing critical social and environmental issues.

The development and agreement of a uniformed legal framework for social enterprise development will consolidate the approach to social enterprise and promote sustainability. There is a consistent view demonstrated within the study’s findings that a legal framework will benefit social enterprise growth. The espousal of legal frameworks typically indicates that social enterprises are significant to establishments. In countries where legal frameworks for social enterprises were introduced, they have been beneficial both socially and economically. A clearly defined characterisation that is widely accepted provides structure, clarity, and additional authority as opposed to a working definition that produces de facto social enterprises. The design of a clear and uniform policy also helps to promote the identity of the social entrepreneur role, encouraging professionalisation. An enhanced and improved empathetic view of what social enterprises mean and how they function regarding funders and establishments will contribute to sustainability and advancement of the discipline.

Conclusion and recommendations

This paper provides an exploration of the issues associated with the integration of social policy dimensions into social entrepreneurship education and makes the following recommendations:

The Indian government should implement measures to foster a supportive environment by utilising suitable legal and fiscal tools. This would encourage MSMEs to transition from the unorganised to the organised sector and promote their corporatization. Furthermore, the government should stimulate higher investments in innovative and knowledge-based ventures, as well as in research and development, by enhancing collaborations between industry and academic institutions.

The social enterprise ecosystem will continue to grow rapidly and will attract interested stakeholders. Social enterprise has the potential to address societal needs, and it will bring a positive impact to society.

The social enterprise ecosystem in India operates in an unorganised fashion. It needs a platform for communicating social and economic values and to leverage business opportunities.

To streamline and establish institutional structure for standard setting and the measurement of impact.

Social enterprises in India need to develop a managerial framework that can be adapted to offer guidance to new and emerging social entrepreneurs. This could help to cut the number of errors new social entrepreneurs make and enable them to manage their organisations in a more professional manner.

There is immense potential to link social enterprise to corporate social responsibility. Social enterprises can avail numerous benefits apart from funding if policy regarding corporate social responsibility is streamlined in a coherent manner.

Furthermore, to provide support at a fundamental level, the government should aim to set up a technical advisory team whose role is to mentor emerging social enterprises and provide them with guidelines on registration, funding, management, business, networking, expansion, collaboration, and innovation. The necessity for an all-in-one, exclusive social enterprise policy in India is clear; it would act as a singular source of wisdom, guiding approaches and providing solutions to many of the issues that occur frequently in social enterprise operations.

While this research has significant limitations, it paints a common and consistent picture of the key determinants of social enterprise. Social enterprises are attracting increasing research and academic consideration around the world. By implementing supportive policies, governments can create a sustainable ecosystem that nurtures social entrepreneurship and contributes to inclusive and sustainable development.

Policymakers need to develop a clear understanding of why, when, and how to regulate social enterprises and the impact that legislation (or lack thereof) can have for their development. The need for regulation for social enterprises is context-based: motives and outcomes of legal frameworks reflect local conditions, which means that what works within the broader legal and regulatory frameworks of one country may not in another and vice versa. Legal frameworks may provide recognition and visibility, as well as access to financial incentives and support, to markets, and to support services that facilitate starting, developing, and growing social enterprises.

Higher education increasingly requires institutions to evidence their worth and address the issue of employability within the curriculum. Traditionally, the focus is largely on young undergraduates who are studying full time and preparing for their first job. However, students enrolled on higher education courses within further and higher education institutions are not primarily concerned with their ability to get that first job, but their ability to keep their current job and/or progress on to the next job. Current employability strategies are concerned with generic skill development. Drawing upon a student centred approach to learning, drawing upon the principles of heutagogy, that focuses upon the development of a social entrepreneurial skill set and related capabilities is required.

Social enterprises are promoted as a solution to the socio-economic challenges posed to the challenges presented of the post-COVID-19 pandemic world. The innovative use of entrepreneurial skills and spirit to address social issues, though not a new concept, surpasses traditional frameworks and is essential for meeting the evolving demands of the modern world. To ensure equality and parity, society today demands that graduates develop new skills, abilities, and knowledge that are responsive to the challenges of the day—i.e. that they become an individual who is able to create social value by generating innovative solutions through a process of social entrepreneurship.

This paper illustrates that social enterprise is complex and dynamic; it is a multifaceted change process through which social entrepreneurs offer economic inclusion and social engagement to different global communities and social groups through creative, solution-orientated strategies (Halsall et al., 2022b ; Snowden et al., 2021a , 2021b ; Oberoi et al., 2018 ). The global community sits on a on a fulcrum; societal and global challenges are distinct and reflect the pervasive inequalities within global society, a response to the needs of today’s dynamic global society is demanded, and social enterprise provides a resolution to these challenges. The recent statement by the United Nations issued in Spring 23 (Unted Nations 2023 ) reaffirms this and calls for global institutions and nations to enable the development of social entrepreneurship skills and capabilities to meet the goals of Sustainable Development Goals.

These include social inequality and injustice, public health, and socio-environmental issues as they present in society, and distinctly, the manner in which the issues empower communities and groups locally, nationally, and globally. Indubitably, the development of a ‘new’ curriculum to develop must be achieved within a cross-disciplinary framework that is both global and hauntological in nature. It is clear that the emerging social enterprise curriculum should be multifaceted and complex, like the concept itself; this would, therefore, enable the learning experience to be dynamic and context specific, and ensure that the needs of the social entrepreneur, community, and society are met by the training provider in the form of the higher education institution.

There is a significant opportunity for policy leaders to shape the future of Indian society. Key to this is the development and adoption of a clear policy to enable social entrepreneurs to fulfil their potential. However, to support this development, opportunities must be realised in relation to learning, and can be developed via the teaching and learning curriculum in terms of skills and development. Without the adoption of a clear pedagogic model to support policy development, the realisation of social enterprise will not be achieved.

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Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been possible without the inputs from various social entrepreneurs and directors of social enterprises and CISE students, particularly our research assistant Adarsh Sachan from KMC, who helped us to carry out focus group discussions and data collection. A special thank you to those who took time out of their busy schedules to share their entrepreneurial journeys with us.

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Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

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Snowden, M., Towns-Andrews, L., Halsall, J.P. et al. Integrating social policy dimensions into entrepreneurship education: a perspective from India. Entrep Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-024-00125-6

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-024-00125-6

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