Sougha: A public-owned establishment, assessed as a social enterprise in the UAE

The United Arab Emirates are challenged to include the national workforce into their increasingly diversified and knowledge-based economic vision. The federal Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development incubates Sougha, a non-profit company acting as market intermediary for Emirati artisans. This study...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Johnsen, Sarah Emmanuelle
Other Authors: Villagómez Morales, V. E.
Format: Others
Language:en
Published: 2015
Subjects:
GCC
Online Access:Johnsen, Sarah Emmanuelle (2015) Sougha: A public-owned establishment, assessed as a social enterprise in the UAE, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19215>
http://hdl.handle.net/10500/19215
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Summary:The United Arab Emirates are challenged to include the national workforce into their increasingly diversified and knowledge-based economic vision. The federal Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development incubates Sougha, a non-profit company acting as market intermediary for Emirati artisans. This study aims at providing an insight into Sougha‘s potential to become a social enterprise. A pragmatic and exploratory approach is followed. An iterative process underpins the concept of social enterprise from established literature, re-visits it through a social constructivist lens as an emerging topic in the GCC region, and benchmarks Sougha against two selected social enterprise frameworks, based on data analysis from documents and interviews. Sougha demonstrates social value creation while its commercial value creation is restricted to social mission activities. Financial motives are insufficiently reflected in Sougha‘s strategic documentation; leaving doubt to whether Sougha is genuinely seeking financial sustainability, which endangers its eligibility as a social enterprise. === Development Studies === M.A. (Development Studies)