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Unlikely allies? Partnerships Between Social Economy Enterprises and Mainstream Businesses

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29 November 2024

Unlikely allies? Partnerships Between Social Economy Enterprises and Mainstream Businesses

Partnerships

Skills

Agri-food

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Three men sitting while using laptops and watching man beside whiteboard

Buy Social Future of Social Economy (May 2023- Oct. 2024) developed a model of training and B2B events, with the aim of improving the competitiveness and commercial capacity of the social enterprises. It encouraged business agreements serving the interests of both for-profit and social enterprises seeking to cultivate new, valuable business relationships. Additionally, the project offered targeted training opportunities designed to address the evolving challenges confronting the social enterprise sector. The project had a specific focus on sectors linked to the circular economy, including textile recycling, fashion, and eco-design.

Authors

Editorial Team: Diesis

Topics
Geographical descriptors

Albania

Armenia

Austria

Belgium

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czechia

Denmark

Estonia

EU-27

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Kosovo

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Moldova

Montenegro

Netherlands

North Macedonia

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Türkiye

Ukraine

Organisation Type

Company with 250 or more employees

International Organisations

National authorities

NGOs / Non-profits

SMEs (a company with less than 250 employees)

  • Thematic area

    • Partnerships

    • Skills

  • Interlinkages with other sectors

    • Agri-food

    • Cultural and creative industries

    • Energy-renewables

    • Retail

    • Textile

    • Tourism

  • Action areas and keywords

    • Buy social

    • Innovation

    • Responsible (Public) Procurement

    • Socially oriented territorial regeneration

  • Ecosystem focus

    • Social economy

  • Scope of activity

    • International

    • National

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The 'Buy Social' project (May 2023- Oct. 2024) is an initiative aimed at promoting and facilitating partnerships between social economy enterprises (SEEs) and mainstream businesses. Its primary goal is to encourage mainstream businesses to integrate social economy enterprises into their supply chains and business operations. This helps to support SEEs, which focus on social and environmental goals, by providing them with greater market access and financial stability.

The project’s final public event took place in Milan on the 17 October 2024 and highlighted key aspects of the project:

1. Promoting Social Procurement: Encouraging mainstream businesses to consider SEEs as suppliers, thus driving more business to social enterprises.

2. Creating Partnerships: Building collaborations that can leverage the strengths of both SEEs and mainstream businesses for mutual benefit and greater social impact.

The 'Buy Social' project (May 2023- Oct. 2024) is an initiative aimed at promoting and facilitating partnerships between social economy enterprises (SEEs) and mainstream businesses. Its primary goal is to encourage mainstream businesses to integrate social economy enterprises into their supply chains and business operations. This helps to support SEEs, which focus on social and environmental goals, by providing them with greater market access and financial stability.

The project’s final public event took place in Milan on the 17 October 2024 and highlighted key aspects of the project:

1. Promoting Social Procurement: Encouraging mainstream businesses to consider SEEs as suppliers, thus driving more business to social enterprises.

2. Creating Partnerships: Building collaborations that can leverage the strengths of both SEEs and mainstream businesses for mutual benefit and greater social impact.

3. Increasing Awareness: Raising awareness among mainstream businesses about the benefits of working with SEEs and the value they bring.

One of the outcomes of the project is this Buy Social B2B Good Practices Report which outlines five exemplary case studies from distinct countries, with well-established collaborations between social economy enterprises (SEEs) and mainstream enterprises in Belgium, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. Throughout the process of conducting interviews and gathering data, several important elements surfaced, primarily revolving around the origin of partnership creation, its consequential impact and its value. Significant attention was also dedicated to identifying and addressing obstacles impeding further development of these partnerships or posing challenges within existing collaborations. The resolution of these challenges greatly influences the potential for the transferability and replicability of such initiatives.

There has been a specific focus on sectors linked to the circular economy, including textile recycling, fashion, energy and eco-design. The report shows the importance of strengthening partnerships between social enterprises and mainstream business to improve the market for social enterprises’ products and services, foreseeing more business agreements between for profit and SEs, to increase new valuable business relations, improve the competitiveness and commercial capacity of the social enterprises and increase the understanding of social economy organisations’ impact and making them more visible for B2B.

Interesting terminology coming out from the report includes the concept of the social relationship model (SRM), which is a huge opportunity for the social enterprise sector across Europe to be aware of opportunities presented to them by the shared value approach these companies are adopting. This can be seen especially, but not only, in rural areas.

Successful partnerships can be developed across all kinds of social impact fields, for instance in sustainable tourism, co-working, education, skilling-up or employability, including in initiatives specifically targeting rural depopulation.

Read more about the case studies in the report or check out the project website!


 

Documents

Buy Social B2B Good Practices Report
English
(2.37 MB - PDF)
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