Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) as social enterprise

Discontinuities between the positive outcomes for business entities in Western capitalist countries and low-quality standards of living for large segments of their populations have grown in recent decades. Combined with environmental degradation worldwide and a poor quality of life for many, the future does not look bright for the ability of these societies and their economies to continue to prosper. Proposed institutional solutions include the development of a different form of organization, the social enterprise, broadly defined as a mission focused and profit-making entity. In the United States, these organizations are few, of varied legal form, relatively small and relatively young. Sometimes a mission focus is the reason for the organization’s existence, while for others, the business is the focus with the mission secondary. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan company (ESOP) has been in existence in the United States for decades. It is also varied in legal form, always profit-focused, and often focused on the welfare of workers and communities. Can the ESOP business fill any part of the societal need for which the social enterprise is justified? This paper examines the argument for, purpose, and features of social enterprises and ESOPs to consider possible commonalities in purpose and outcomes.