Social enterprise: Applicability of the competitor identification framework

Since government funding has significantly decreased, and the number of non-profit organisations has increased, it is inevitable that social enterprises will face greater competition which may threaten their social mission and sustainability. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was, firstly, to explore whether social enterprises understand that they face competition and, secondly, whether the model for competitor identification, developed by Chen (1996), is applicable to social enterprises. This research used a multi-stage, random, purposive sampling technique to target social enterprises that had been operational for a minimum of 5 years. It resulted in 24 key informants from Australian social enterprises and 3 intermediaries being interviewed.