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In recent years, public and policy interest in social enterprise and its impacts has grown. Yet, little is known about the characteristics and impacts of social enterprise. In February 2017, the Victorian Government launched its first Social Enterprise Strategy. The Strategy seeks to improve and expand on government support for Victorian social enterprises and to position Victoria's social enterprises as national leaders in driving employment participation and inclusive economic growth. This report was commissioned as part of the implementation of the Social Enterprise Strategy and provides the first ever baseline analysis of social enterprises in Victoria, with a particular focus on the size of the social enterprise population, its characteristics and impacts. This report will be useful to social enterprise operators, policy makers, social enterprise intermediaries, and researchers.

This report presents a social impact evaluation of 'Be Connected', an Australian government Digital Literacy for Older Australians program. The evaluation assesses the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of 'Be Connected' and aims to inform future policy direction on the basis of the program's achievements, strengths and limitations. Through a mixed-methods, 3-year study gathering insights from the experiences of 915 program participants and stakeholders, the research team found that: - A nationally funded network approach to delivering digital skills support for older Australians works because it empowers diverse partner organisations – from libraries and computer clubs, to retirement villages, aged care facilities and Men's Sheds – to reach more older Australians in their local communities through trusted relationships. - Be Connected has successfully developed the capacity of more than 9,800 Digital Mentors to act as a frontline for digital skills development. - Adaptive, flexible and up-to-date online learning resources act as a touchpoint for Network Partners, Digital Mentors and learners. - Be Connected had a statistically significant impact on participants' foundational digital skills and knowledge, digital confidence, social connectedness and loneliness, and online safety. - Be Connected has delivered a positive social return on investment

Purpose
The social economy – including not-for-profits, cooperatives, mutual organisations and social enterprises – is playing a stronger role than ever in the delivery of public policy. Yet, these organisations are often anecdotally viewed as relatively inefficient providers. The purpose of this paper is to compare the profitability and labour productivity of social enterprises in the State of Victoria in Australia with that of small- and medium-sized business enterprises (SMEs) in the same state. This paper found that, although social enterprises generally generated smaller profits and, therefore, could be less profitable, their relative level of labour productivity (value added and income to labour employed) was comparable or higher than that of SMEs. This paper responds to the need for comparative insights about social enterprise performance and considers the implications of these findings for new public governance.


Design/methodology/approach
The social economy – including not-for-profits, cooperatives, mutual organisations and social enterprises – is playing a stronger role than ever in the delivery of public policy. Yet these organisations are often anecdotally viewed as relatively inefficient providers.


Findings
This paper found that, although social enterprises generally generated smaller profits and, therefore, could be less profitable, their relative level of labour productivity (value added and income to labour employed) was comparable or higher than that of SMEs. This paper responds to the need for comparative insights about social enterprise performance and considers the implications of these findings for new public governance.


Originality/value
This is the first work that has been done of this sort that has looked specifically at Australia circumstances.