Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment

Abstract

Empowerment is one of the most important social value creation activities performed by social enterprises (SEs). Despite the burgeoning research on SEs, there is limited research on the meaning and aspects of empowerment from the SE perspective, or the so-called SEas -Empowerment research. In light of this research gap, we employed the Gioia's methodology and data triangulation to analyze a renowned Hong Kong's SE that focuses on youth empowerment. This study contributes to the SEas -Empowerment literature by revealing five types of empowerment –– building social awareness, meaningful participation, social connections, building entrepreneurial skills, and power sharing between youths and adults––which can be broadly categorized into social-capacity empowerment and entrepreneurial-capacity empowerment. This study makes novel contributions to the SEas -Empowerment literature by proposing new concepts including multi-directional (internally and externally oriented) aspect of empowerment, the pluralistic notion of agency, and power sharing between youths and adults as important elements of youth empowerment in SE. Finally, we discuss the implications of this study for the SE practitioners, educators, and policy makers and propose avenues for future research.

Full text

The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work
Vol. 51, No. 1/2 (Summer/Winter 2017) 115– 144
© WorldScienticPublishingCompany
HongKongSocialWorkersAssociation
DOI: 10.1142/S0219246217000080
115
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SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AS A MECHANISM OF
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
YANTO CHANDRA
Department of Public Policy
City University of Hong Kong
Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
ychandra@cityu.edu.hk
SHANG LIANG
Department of Public Policy
City University of Hong Kong
Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
dj2echo@gmail.com
Abstract: Empowerment is one of the most important social value creation activities
performedby social enterprises (SEs).Despite the burgeoning research on SEs, there is
limited research on the meaning and aspects of empowerment from the SE perspective,
ortheso-calledSE-as-Empowermentresearch.Inlightofthisresearchgap,weemployed
theGioia’smethodology and data triangulation to analyzearenownedHongKong’sSE
thatfocuses on youth empowerment. Thisstudy contributes to the SE-as-Empowerment
literaturebyrevealingvetypesofempowerment––buildingsocialawareness,meaningful
participation,socialconnections,buildingentrepreneurialskills,andpowersharingbetween
youthsandadults––whichcanbebroadlycategorizedintosocial-capacityempowerment
andentrepreneurial-capacityempowerment.Thisstudy makes novel contributions to the
SE-as-Empowerment literature by proposing new concepts including multi-directional
(internallyandexternallyoriented)aspectofempowerment,thepluralisticnotionofagency,
andpowersharingbetweenyouthsandadultsasimportantelementsofyouthempowerment
inSE.Finally,wediscusstheimplicationsofthisstudyfortheSEpractitioners,educators,
andpolicy makers and propose avenuesforfutureresearch.
Keywords:Social enterprise; empowerment; volunteering; youth.

116 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
Introduction
Social enterprise (SE) is a new organizational form that has attracted the
attentionofthe public, privateandnon-prot sectors, andconsideredas a more
innovative and cost-effective model in delivering social and public services
(Defourny& Nyssens,2006). Socialenterprise ischaracterized by its hybridity
inthatitcombinessocialwelfare andbusinesslogics(Chandra,2016a; Doherty,
Haugh, & Lyon, 2014). In the Hong Kong SAR context, social enterprises
(SEs) emerged as the SAR government’s response to the Asian nancial crisis
in1997 (Chandra & Wong,2016),whichsawrisingunemploymentandpoverty
problems(Lee, 2012) and the state’sdesire totransform welfare to“workfare”,
aninitial prototypethatlatermorphedintotheSEmodel.Todate,HongKong’s
SEshave received recognitionand status asa partner of the stateand nonprot
sectorin addressinga variety of societal challenges, from poverty and agingto
environmental crisis (Chandra & Wong, 2016; Chandra, 2016b).
Although there is a burgeoning research on SE, extant research tends to
focus on the organizational (Doherty et al., 2014), motivational (Chandra &
Shang, 2017a; Germak & Robinson, 2014), political (Nicholls & Teasdale,
2016) and institutional (Kerlin, 2013) aspects of SE. While this body of
research provides an important contribution to the SE eld, there is limited
new theoretical advancement beyond these aspects in the SE literature. To this
end,newtheoretical ideas andresearchagendamust be pursuedtopush the SE
scholarship forward. Empowerment is one of the most important social value
creation activities performed by SEs, because SE is essentially an intervention
toindividualswithnoorlimitedpower and provide them with greaterpowerto
make decisions and choices in life and become self-reliant. In fact, most if not
all of the work-integration social enterprises (WISEs), a popular form of SE,
relies on empowerment as its main social value creation strategies (Chandra,
Jiang, & Wang, 2016). Despite the importance of empowerment, it remains an
understudiedtheoreticalperspectiveandnot-so-well-understoodaspect ofSE.In
thispaper,weseektomake a theoreticalandempiricalcontributionbystudying
the empowerment concept.
Empowerment refers to a “process by which those who have been denied
theabilitytomakestrategiclifechoicesacquiresuchan ability” (Kabeer,1999,
p.437).Empowermentcomprises three inter-relatedelements: resources, agency
and achievements (Kabeer, 1999, 2005). Resources are material (e.g., assets,
income)and non-material (human and social) and are “affectedbytherulesand
norms which govern distribution and exchange in different institutional areas”
(Kabeer, 1999, p.437).Agency refers to an individual’s ability to dene his or
herowngoalsandactuponthem.Therefore,agencyisaboutthesenseofhaving

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 117
a power to perform “bargaining and negotiation, deception and manipulation,
subversionandresistance”(Kabeer,1999,p.438).Whileresourceisabout“being”,
agency is about “doing”; together they refer to capabilities. Achievements are
thewell-beingoutcomes.Forinstance,forwomenempowerment,achievementin
empowermentreferstothehealthandsurvivabilityoftheirchildren.Empowerment
has been studied extensively in the gender and inequality studies — but has
limitedapplicationtoSE(Haugh&Talwar,2016).Todate,weknowlittleabout
the meaning and aspects of emancipation as it pertains to SE. We coin this as
the “SE-as-Emancipation” gap in the SE literature.
Therefore,thispaper seeks toanswerthefollowing research question:“How
do social enterprises empower its beneciaries?”Toanswertheresearchquestion
andmakenewtheoreticaladvancementintheSEliterature,weexaminedaHong
Kong’ssocialenterprisecalled Soap Cycling thatconductsyouthempowerment
through real-life SE activities that form a part of an undergraduate curriculum.
We employed the Gioia Methodology and inductively coded various narrative
datafromin-depthinterviewsand other publicly availablenarrativedatarelated
to the SE. To facilitate this research, we relied on a computer-aided qualitative
dataanalysis (CAQDAS)tool to assist with the data coding and abstraction.In
thenext sections, weprovide a theoreticalorientationof thestudy,describe the
methodology, and report the ndings. We conclude the paper by highlighting
keytheoretical contributions to the SE literature and providing practicaladvice
to SE practitioners, educators, and policy makers.
Empowerment: An Overview
Empowermentis a criticalconceptfor social policyand practice (Albuquerque,
Santos, & Almeida, 2016; Christens & Peterson, 2012) and studies in gender
and inequality (Kabeer, 1999, 2005). Empowerment refers to a “process by
which those who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices
acquire such an ability” (Kabeer, 1999, p. 437). Kabeer (1999, 2005) argued
that empowerment consists of three inter-related elements: resources, agency,
and achievements. Resources refer to material (e.g., assets, income) and non-
material(human and social)and their accessisaffected by therules and norms
whichgovern distributionand exchangein differentinstitutional areas (Kabeer,
1999, p. 437).Agency refers to an individual’s ability to dene his or her own
goals and act upon them. Hence, agency is about the sense of having a power
toperform“bargainingandnegotiation,deception and manipulation, subversion
and resistance” (Kabeer, 1999, p. 438). Resource is about “being” and agency
is about “doing”. Achievements are the well-being outcomes of having access
to resources and a sense of agency.

118 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
Inthesocialworkliterature,empowermentisdenedasaprocessandagoal.
As a process, it refers to helping individuals, groups and communities regain
powertohavecontrolovertheir own lives and theiraffairsand reducepeople’s
feelings of powerlessness (Solomon, 1987). The process of accessing power is
autonomous and cannot be transferred from one individual to another (Lee &
Hudson,1996).Asagoal, empowermentisaresultofgainingpowerinpolitical
or personal aspects. The reallocation of power resulted from changes in social
structures leads to the empowerment of people (Ackerson & Harrison, 2000).
Atthe beneciary level, empowermentcan be facilitatedatthe personal and
communitylevels(Jenningset al.,2006).Atthepersonal level,anindividualcan
beempoweredthrough an increasein self-efcacy (Bandura,1997),awareness-
building (Gutierrez, 1990) and developing political and interpersonal capacities
(Prestby et al., 1990). Personal empowerment often involves reection of
individuals’values, becomingawareofone’sownstrengths andweaknessesand
evenmaking fundamental changes in life (Perkinson, 1993). At the community
level, empowerment includes obtaining access to resources (Jennings et al.,
2006),engagementinparticipatorydialogue(Ansari,Munir&Gregg,2012)and
developmentofinternalcohesions(Kerriganet al.,2015).Thistypeofcollective
empowerment includes processes and structures that increase group members’
capacities, and improving their well-beings and strengthening organizational
networks (Zimmerman, 2000).
Empowerment is a key social value creation strategy adopted by social
enterprises (Chandra, Jiang, & Wang, 2016) particularly work-integrated social
enterprises (WISEs). Essentially,WISEs empower their beneciaries (e.g., ex-
convicts, elderly citizens, disabled people) through employment that enables
skillstransfer,self-respectandself-esteem, broadening ofone’ssocial networks
andenhancingone’ssocialstatus(thenon-material resources)aswellasincome
andthe ability toacquire material possessions(material resources). WISEs also
usually provides training to enhance the beneciaries’ skills and knowledge
while at the same time using training as a means of advocacy, to build the
beneciaries’ co-workers’ and public’s understanding about the plight of the
beneciaries.Therefore,WISEappliesemploymentandtrainingasamechanism
or process of empowerment with a goal of reallocating power to the power-
decient beneciaries. In Hong Kong, a classic example of empowerment via
WISEistheFullnessSalon,whichemploysandtrainsdeviantyouthsandyoung
ex-convicts into hair dressers. However, there is little theory-building research
conducted to deepen and expand the “SE-as-Empowerment” concept literature.
Inthispaper,wefocusonyouth empowerment,animportantyetunderstudied
topicofrelevanceto researchers, practitioners andpolicymakers(Berg,Coman

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& Schensul, 2009; Watts & Flanagan, 2007). In recent years, youth programs
havegradually shifted fromrehabilitationorcontainment(Jenningset al., 2006)
to facilitating healthy youth development and capacity building through active
communityinvolvement (Christens & Dolan, 2011).However,wealsonotethat
youthempowerment has differentmeaningsin diverse contexts.Many previous
studiesofyouthempowermenthavefocusedonvulnerablepopulations(Einspruch
& Wunrow, 2002; Tierney et al., 1993) or youth from diverse ethnic groups
(Ginwright, 2007). For example, Holden and his colleagues (2004) studied a
youthempowermentmodel in the contextoftobaccocontrol and viewedyoung
peopleas community assets who are empowered tobetter theirhealth and own
lives.Jennings and hercolleagues (2006) examinedyouthempowerment model
thatemphasizesonengagingyouthinworkthatwouldhelpthemdevelopskills,
buildcriticalawarenessandhave opportunitiestoengageincreatingcommunity
and societal changes. Zimmerman (2000) suggested that the ultimate goal of
youthempowerment isto promote greater social changes by meansof building
the individual capacity of young people.
Althoughresearchershavediscussedavarietyofyouthempowermentmodels
and theories (e.g., Wilson et al., 2008; Holden et al., 2004), there is a dearth
of research that focuses on the why and how of youth empowerment in the
context of social enterprises; and deriving insights from youth empowerment
SE to develop new concepts and theories in SE. Because social enterprises is
a relatively new form of organizing and can be considered a new sector (one
that combines the best of the public, private and non-prot sectors), the notion
of youth empowerment in SE may differ from other contexts or sectors and
therefore this deserves a special attention to theory developers.
Volunteering as a Means of Empowerment
Avolunteerissomeonewhocontributestimeandeffortstohelpingotherswithout
expecting any returns (Bussell & Forbes, 2002; Wilson, 2000). Some scholars
evencallvolunteeringasaformofseriousleisure(Stebbins,1996).Volunteering
isa win-win activityfor thesociety and socialdevelopment (MacNeela,2008).
For the society, volunteers and their services can assist the government and
non-prot sectors in public service deliveries (Butcher, 2010).
Specically,volunteering is believed to be benecial for the volunteers and
beneciaries(MacNeela,2008;Musick&Wilson,2000).Pastresearchfoundthat
people’sinvolvementinvoluntaryactivitiescontributestotheirownempowerment
(Cohen, 2009), among others, through participation in community committees,
self-help groups and so forth. Volunteers tend to demonstrate higher levels of

120 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
self-efcacy,criticalawarenessandinterpersonalskills(Zimmerman,1990).For
young people, volunteering helps build self-condence through engagement in
self-reection(Hustinx& Lammertyn, 2003),as it provides opportunitiesto try
new things and deal with challenges (Schwartz & Suyemoto, 2013).
Despite the existing research on youth empowerment (e.g. Berg, Coman &
Schensul, 2009; Jennings et al., 2006) and the motivations and processes of
volunteering as a means of youth empowerment (Cohen, 2009), we know little
about volunteering and youth empowerment in the context of SE. To date, the
nascentSEresearchonempowermenthastakenaone-sidedviewoftheservice
recipient’sor beneciary’sperspective (e.g.,Gray,Healy &Crofts, 2003;Datta
& Gailey, 2012).There is limited research that takes a dyadic or holistic view
of SE empowerment through the eyes of the SE founders and youth volunteers
who participate in SE activities. This paper will address the “dyadic gap” in
youth empowerment SE research (i.e., by focusing on the SE’s founder and
beneciaries), and as will be shown later, this is an important perspective to
better understand empowerment in SE.
Methodology
To answer the research question — “How do social enterprises empower its
beneciaries?” — we conducted a theory-building research using the Gioia
Methodology(Gioia et al.,2013; Chandra, 2017; Chandra & Shang, 2017a,b).
We focused on a single case (Yin, 2003) because rst, youth empowerment in
theSEcontextisanunderexploredareathatisworthexploring.Secondly,Soap
Cyclingisauniquecase(Yin,2003)asitistherststudent-runSEinauniversity
inHong Kong that hasbecomeawell-establishedcredit-bearingcourse.The SE
hasbecome an inspiration andbenchmarkforotherHongKong’suniversitiesto
develop student-run SEs. Thirdly, this SE starts and grows inside a university
and relies on the expertise of university staffs, giving it a unique context (Yin,
2003), unlike most SEs in Hong Kong that are started in the community and
orreceivesubstantial support from thegovernmentorindividuals with business
experience.
In this paper, the emphasis is not on a particular type of (marginalized or
disabled)youth.Rather,wefocusongeneral,non-marginalizedyouthsfollowing
Wilson and colleagues’ (2007) concept of youth empowerment as the outcome
inwhichyoung people have accesstoresourcesand skills thatcanimpacttheir
own lives and lives of other individuals.
To enhance the internal validity of the study and better capture the reality,
weemployed data triangulationby using differentsources of informationabout

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 121
the case (Yin, 2003; Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). In doing so, we collected
data from three sources: i) interviews with the founder and general manager
of Soap Cycling to collect rst-hand qualitative data, ii) interviews with the
beneciariesof the SE,thestudent volunteers; andiii) secondary narrativedata
from publicly available sources (see Table 1). A summary of the data sources
used in this study is shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1. A summary of data sources
Name of
interviewees (n = 7) Position/Role in the SE Background
Number of
interview
On-site
visit
DavidBishop Founder,Chairman Lawyer,businesslawlecturerat
HKU
2
PatrickDavis GeneralManager LawyerwithMBAfromHKU 1
StudentA Beneciary,Marketing
of the SE
Year3Accountingstudent(local)
at HKU
1
StudentB Beneciary,Human
ResourcesoftheSE
Year2Economicsstudent(local)
at HKU
1
StudentC Beneciary,China
ExpansionoftheSE
Year4HumanResources
Managementstudent(local)atHKU
1
Student D Beneciary,Operations
of the SE
Year2Accountingstudent(local)
at HKU
1
Student E Beneciary,China
ExpansionoftheSE
Year4Accountingstudent
(exchange)atHKU
1
Publicly available
narrative data:
(n=7)
FacebookpageofSoapCycling,LinkedInpageofDavidBishopandPatrickDavis,
ofcialSoapCyclingwebsiteandYouTube,SouthChinaMorningPost(2articles),
Students’blogs
HKUwebsite,Forbeswebsite(2articles),PwCwebsite,Unicefwebsite,American
ChamberofCommercewebsite,HiltonHotelwebsite,SkollwebsiteonDavidBishop
TheStraitsTimeswebsite,HongKongFressPresswebsite
Photographs as
data (n = 15)
Photosonthestudentsdoingthesoapscrapingwork,theinteractionbetweenstudents
anddomestichelpersinasoapscrapingsession,themanufacturing.
facilityofSoapCycling,theploddermachinetorecyclesoaps,recycledsoapsin
differentcolorsandshapes
Specically, we interviewed David Bishop, the SE’s founder, in his ofce
at the University of Hong Kong in August 2016.We asked about the rationale
and history behind the development of the SE, how he managed the SE, how
students were involved in the SE and his views about how the SE benets
the students. We then interviewed Patrick Davis, the general manager of Soap
Cycling,inApril 2017usingtheinsightsderivedfrom the earlierinterviewwith
thefounder.WeaskedMr.Davisabout hisworkingrelationshipwiththestudent

122 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
volunteersand how the Soap Cycling project is operated bythese studentsand
how students benetted from the SE.
Finally, we interviewed ve student volunteers. By embedding ourselves in
oneoftheweekendeventsoftheSE,welearnedthatthestudentvolunteerswere
assignedtodifferentdepartments(i.e.,ChinaExpansion,Marketing,Compliance,
Operation,and Human Resources),just like areal life organization.Fromhere,
werandomly selected one student fromeach ofthe departments for interviews.
We asked the students questions about their major at the university, how they
benettedfromtheSoapCyclingSEproject, theirresponsibilitiesandtheirplan
for a future career. For all interviews, we did not use the word “empower” or
“empowerment”intheinterviewstoavoidleadingtheinformantsonthetopicof
thestudy.Allinterviewsweretranscribed verbatim and included in theanalysis.
To offer a vivid illustration of Soap Cycling, we also included a photo that
documentsa scene ofthestudents in avoluntary session heldfor Hong Kong’s
domestic helpers in April 2017.
Figure 1. Soap Cycling student volunteers
PhotocourtesyofSoapCycling;3April2017.
Next,wesearchedforanypubliclyavailablenarrativedataabouttheSE;and
collected 17 unique sources of information comprising websites, news articles,
additionalinterviewmaterials,blogsandsocialmediapostsaboutSoapCycling

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 123
(seeTable1).Thesenarrativescontainimportantstoriesandconstructs(Pentland,
1999) that help us better understand the phenomenon under investigation.
Thedataanalysisstrategyfollowstheso-calledGioiamethodology(Gioiaet
al.,2012; Nag & Gioia, 2012; Chandra &Shang, 2017b),which is suitable for
inductivetheorybuildingandnarrativedata.Weinductivelycodedthenarrative
data into rst-level codes and then abstracted them into the second-level codes
and nally into aggregate dimensions (Gioia et al., 2013) with the help of
RQDA(Huang, 2016), an open-source computer-aided qualitative data analysis
(CAQDAS)toolthat runs in Rprogramminglanguage(for a detailedreviewof
RQDAplease read Chandra&Shang, 2017b). CAQDASisa valuable toolthat
canenhancethetransparencyandtrustworthinessofqualitativeresearch(Carvajal,
2002;Chandra& Shang, 2017b). Itcomprisesvarioustypes of computingtools
to enable narrative data classication, coding and abstraction, retrieving and
plotting (Chandra & Shang, 2017b). CAQDAS packages facilitate grounded
theoryanalysiswithfunctionsthatenableresearcherstobuilda“theory”through
asystemofcodeswhere theory is that whichemergesout ofthedata(Richards
&Richards,1994;Strauss&Corbin, 1990).Ascreenshotofhow we conducted
the coding process is shown inAppendix I. Next, we provided an overview of
the Soap Cycling case and then presented the ndings.
Soap Cycling: A Youth Empowerment Social Enterprise
SoapCyclingwasfoundedin2012byDavidBishop,alecturerattheUniversity
ofHongKong,andagroupofUniversityofHongKong’sundergraduatestudents
asa student internship project.Youthempowerment is one of the key missions
of Soap Cycling. Soap Cycling is a SE because it seeks to create educational
and environmental value while generating revenue from various sources (i.e.,
donation,fees,etc.)torunitsprograms.ThisSErecyclesunusedsoapstoimprove
sanitationandhygieneofyoungpeopleinunderdevelopedregions.Byrecycling
unusedsoapsinto new soaps, thisSEseeksto address pneumoniaanddiarrhea,
twoleadingkillersofthechildrenaroundtheworld(InternationalVaccineAccess
Center, 2015).These diseases can be prevented with appropriate hand washing
withsoapandhygieneeducation(WorldHealthOrganization,2013).Yet,access
to soap has always been a big problem to young children in the third world.
How did the idea for Soap Cycling come about? The story can be traced
backtothe experience of Bishop,aformer lawyer intheUS and EastAsiaand
who later worked as a lecturer in the Faculty of Business at the Hong Kong
University. Bishop recognized that university graduates often lack real world
experience and face difculties in nding jobs after graduation. Bishop wanted

124 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
tochange this situationand providedthe students witha meaningful leadership
and management experience.As Bishop stated below:
“University students [in Hong Kong and elsewhere] need to have real-
life work experience before they graduate…They need to know how the
real world works, what they are good and not good at honestly… and
listen to what the boss tell them where they need to improve. They need
to learn how to deal with setbacks in life. You can’t learn these things in
the classroom … They need hands-on learning experience by managing
an enterprise” (David Bishop interview,August 2016).
Of the 18% of Hong Kong high school graduates who score well enough to
attend college, many are unprepared for decision making, leadership roles,
teamwork, and strategic thinking…[Thus] I wanted to challenge students to
engage in real leadership experience and to give back to society”.(David
Bishop interview,August 2016).
Soap Cycling SE is operated by student volunteers. Student volunteers are
distributed across various managerial positions and operational aspects. These
volunteers normally work for 13 weeks (during a semester) as a part of their
undergraduate curriculum. With three other co-directors: Baniel Chung (an
engineerandmarketingexpert),BeauLeerandDr.ChadLykins(bothlecturers
in law at the University of Hong Kong), Bishop provides guidance and advice
tostudentsinmanagingtheSEandencouragesthevolunteerstomakedecisions
and take own actions (Chiu, 2012).
Specically, how does Soap Cycling SE empower students? We presented
the ndings of the study in the next section.
Findings
The rst stage of data analysis consists of an “open and axial coding” (Corbin
&Strauss, 1990; Gioia et al., 2013) to understand how Soap Cycling empowers
studentvolunteers.Thismeans thatwecodedthe rawnarrativedataintovarious
themes and gradually aggregate them into higher themes or dimensions. In
doing this, we created a total of 13 rst-level codes. We then exported the
13 rst-level codes into an excel le and further classied, and aggregated
them into ve second-level concepts — building social awareness, meaningful
participation, social connections, building entrepreneurial skills, power sharing
between youths and adults — and nally aggregated them based on similarity
inmeaning which we called social-capacity empowerment and entrepreneurial-
capacity empowerment.

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 125
Figure 2 shows the analytical coding process that highlights the rst-level
andsecond-levelconceptsandtheaggregatedimensionsderivedfromthecoding
process.Wediscussourndingsbackwards,bydiscussingthehigherlevelthemes
rst and using the lower level themes to illustrate them.
Social-Capacity Empowerment
Thersttypeofempowermentfoundinthisstudyissocial-capacityempowerment.
Theanalysis found thatSoap Cycling SEempowered student volunteers’social
capacitythroughthreemain stages: 1) socialawarenessbuilding,2) meaningful
participation and 3) enhancing social connections. We discussed each of them
below.
Social Awareness Building
Beforethe student volunteers joined Soap Cycling SE activities, manyof them
lacked awareness of the hygiene problems in developing countries and had no
idea what happened to unused soaps in hotels after they were used and how
they might be repurposed. For instance, one of the students interviewed stated
that “before I joined Soap Cycling, I had no idea what happens to the bars of
soap left behind at hotels” (Student D interview).
Figure 2. Analytical coding process
• Engagevolunteeringstudentsincharityactivity
• Enable studentstohelpthelessfortunatepeople
• Leadvolunteersforself -reflection
• Studentscanfindagrouptoworktogether
throughoutthewholeinternship
• Regularmeetingswithinstudentinterns
• Organizemonthlyvolunteeringevents
• Promotesoapcyclingawareness duringactivities
• Organizeregularsitevisittothewarehouse
• ReceivefeedbackfromNGOpartners
• Studentsareresponsibleforvariousmanagerial
tasksinrunning theorganization
• Submitevaluationreportsforperformance
evaluation
• Prepareactionplanformanagingtheorganization
• Studentsmakeimportantdecisionsonmanaging
organization
• Studentsasmajororganizationalleaders
• Studentsreceiveguidancefrommentors & an
advisoryboard
MeaningfulParticipation
BuildingSocialAwareness
SocialConnection
Power-sharingbetweenYouth&Adults
BuildingEntrepreneurialSkills
Social-Capacity
Empowerment
Entre pren euria l-Capacity
Empowerment

126 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
Inotherwords,theSEdevelopsyoungpeople’ssocialawarenessorindividuals’
understandingoftheneedsandhistoricalspecicityof socialeventsandprocess
(Dinev & Hart, 2005). The social awareness building involves “naming the
problem, speaking out, raising consciousness, and researching”(Steinem, 1983,
p.352).ByprovidingstudentvolunteerstheopportunitiestovisittheSE’srecycled
soapwarehouseandparticipateinreprocessinganddistributingthesoaps,theSE
alsohelpedbuildthe students’sense ofcivicresponsibility (Verba et al., 1995).
Toenhance volunteers’social awareness onhygiene problemsin developing
countries, the SE organized eld visits to its warehouse at World Peace Center
inKwaiChungandallowedthe students to “know what soap recycling is”.The
SEexposes the volunteerstothe needs ofthe deprived groupsand makes them
think of ways to help them. As stated by one of the volunteers:
“Amidst other pressing environmental problems, our team learned that
sanitation and hygiene, which are environmental and health problems, are
constantly overlooked. Soap Cycling has taught us that by merely washing
hands throughout the day… signicantly reduces the impact of two fatal
diseases: acute respiratory infection (e.g., pneumonia) and diarrheal disease
plaguing poor communities.”(studentinterviewquotedfromPwCwebsite)
Apart from learning the importance of sanitation and hygiene, the student
volunteers also receive regular feedback reports from NGO partners that help
distributetherecycledsoaps directly topoorerregions.Thisinteraction enabled
thestudents tolearn more about the plight of the disadvantaged population.As
one of student volunteers stated:
“We really see that the local condition (in poorer regions) may not be that
good especially comparing to Hong Kong. We are very fortunate that we
basically have what we need. But in those poorer areas, people may not
have clean waters. So soap is very important to improve their sanitation
and hygiene conditions.” (StudentA interview)
Meaningful Participation
Soap Cycling SE provides volunteering opportunities to university students by
engaging them directly in charity work to “learn and help the less fortunate
people in the underdeveloped countries” (Soap Cycling website). During the
interview,fouroutofvestudentvolunteersmentionedthatwhattheydoatSoap
Cyclingis “very meaningful”.As one ofstudentsstated: “…this project is very
meaningful. I can work and build friendship, but also can help others”(Student
Dinterview).Bycollectingdonatedsoapsfromhotelsandreprocessingtheminto

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 127
newsoap bars, studentvolunteersgainedhands-onexperienceinhelpingothers.
These activities provide a meaningful experience for the students through the
newthings that thevolunteerslearned or gainedin the process(Jennings et al.,
2006). Participation in voluntary work is a form of civic engagement (Morton
& Montgomery, 2011) and has important implications on youth empowerment
(Catalanoet al.,2004).Engagementinmeaningfulcharityorvoluntaryactivities
can help youth to develop self-identity, self-esteem, and enhance self-efcacy
and condence (Bhangaokar & Mehta, 2012). As one of the students stated:
“By doing my small part and spending my weekend morning scraping
soaps, another volunteer could turn them into new bars of soap, which
would be packed by another person, loaded in a car or truck, driven to an
airport, loaded onto a plane, own across the world and given to someone
in need. Not bad for the morning of a teenage girl in Hong Kong! ” (A
student’sblog)
Another interesting empowerment aspect of the Soap Cycling SE was that
studentvolunteersweregiven“silent timeforreection”after eachvolunteering
session, a process led by staff members. This reective practice supports
volunteers’ self-development and enhances their commitment to doing charity
services (Goethem et al., 2014; Hustinx & Lammertyn, 2003). Reection also
enhances the meaning of participation in voluntary services. It facilitates self-
inquiry by linking learning and personal experiences (Johns, 2011). This was
well illustrated in one of the student volunteers’ remarks:
“There were silent times for reection, and I realized soap carving is
similar to knitting in that it is tedious yet soothing, and gives you time to
really think about your life and the world in general. Yes, sometimes you
come across a piece of soap with pubes or other questionable smudges
but you just scrape it off, thank the karma fairies that you are wearing
gloves and a mask, and carry on.”(A student’s blog)
Social Connections
SoapCycling SE also provided student volunteers the opportunities toenhance
their social connections through social and teamwork development skills. For
instance, when performing the voluntary work, the volunteers “were asked to
raise funds to support Soap Cycling by registering others for the event” (HKU
website).Suchactivityprovidedtheopportunitiestorene their communication
skills. Voluntary work is teamwork (Miller et al., 2002) because volunteering
almost always revolves around working collaboratively with peers to provide

128 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
various services. Teamwork also allows volunteers to share responsibility
thus empowering them (Wallace-DiGarbo & Hill, 2006). Through cooperation
with others, the student volunteers met new people, developed networking,
communicationand interpersonalskillshenceenhancingtheirsocialconnection.
As one of the student volunteers stated:
“This is a great place to help students to commit, push themselves and
nally become a more responsible person. Another great thing is about
friendship — you can nd a group to work together throughout a whole
semester.” (Soap Cycling website)
However,workingtogetherisalsooneofthechallengesthatstudentvolunteers
encountered, as one of them stated: “Different people are working on different
projects. It seems challenging to me to accommodate to different people’s working
styles and to communicate effectively to get the work done”(StudentAinterview).
To help the student volunteers overcome these difculties, the directors and
the general manager of the SE share what they do with other teammates and
allow the students to seek advice or help from others. Apart from receiving
practicaladvicefrompeer volunteers and supervisors,thestudentsalso develop
asenseofteamworkandstrongerconnectionswiththeir teammates through the
meetings. As one of student volunteers said:
“We have a general meeting every week. Different teams will report the
progress of their teams…We talk about what we did, what kind of help
we need from teammates and how we can help others. We are able to
better communicate with each other. We also have an intern event every
month which can increase our bonding between different teams.” (Student
C interview)
Entrepreneurial-Capacity Empowerment
This study also found that Soap Cycling SE empowered student volunteers by
building their entrepreneurial capacity. The SE was established to provide a
platform for students to develop hands-on entrepreneurial and technical (e.g.,
IT, law, marketing) experience and better prepare them for future jobs. As
Bishop stated, “They (students) can learn many things by managing our Soap
Cycling [than directly joining large investment banks] …In Soap Cycling they
learn to be an all-rounded entrepreneur”. This study identied two elements
ofentrepreneurial-capacity empowerment: 1) power-sharingbetween youth and
adults 2) building entrepreneurial skills. 

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 129
Power-Sharing between Youth and Adults
SoapCyclingSEenhancedthedecision-makingpowerofitsstudentvolunteers.
Most young people in Hong Kong, as the SE general manager Patrick Davis
stated, “have been given a lot of opportunities… [but] they are not allowed to
fail. Their lives can be so [well] managed. They do not really have a chance to
try anything outside of their comfort zone”. To give students a sense of power,
Bishop encouraged students to make almost all the important decisions in the
SE, from selecting business ideas to managing the SE.
Take the establishment of the SE as an example. The decision to set up
Soap Cycling was not planned by Bishop himself, but rather emerged from
his discussions with students and it happened that one of the students had an
intimateknowledgeofsoapmanufacturing(i.e.,thisunplanned,stakeholder-based
decisionmaking is known as “effectuation”;Sarasvathy,2001; Chandra, 2017).
TheSEisoperatedbystudentvolunteersandthevolunteersaregivenvarious
managerialpositions to handle all administrative and operational aspects ofthe
SEas a partof their13-week internship.As the generalmanager PatrickDavis
stated,“Basically, they [student volunteers] run everything. My job is to give them
guidance and make sure they have a strong foundation”. By doing so, the SE
hasempoweredstudentstoexercisetheirdecision-makingpower.Thisenhanced
thestudents’self-condenceand developed theirsenseofresponsibility.Asone
of the volunteers said, “Compared to other projects, this [social enterprise]
gives us more responsibility. We are actually running our own organization”
(Student B interview).
Powerrefers to the capacity toaccess andhaving control over resources for
improvingenvironmentalconditions(Chadiha et al.,2004).Power-sharingbetween
youths and adults as practiced in this SE involves adults transferring a certain
amountofresponsibilityanddecision-makingpowertoyoungpeopletoenhance
theircompetenceandcondence(Jenningset al.,2006).Althoughpower-sharing
isanimportantelementforyouthempowerment,inpractice,mostyouthinternship
programs do not offer students the opportunities to make real decisions, “nor
to suffer the consequences when they make mistakes” (The University of Hong
Kong, 2012). However, Kohfeldt and colleagues (2011) pointed out that taking
responsibilityforowndecisionsisalsoacriticalelementinyouthempowerment
as constructive learning can arise from bearing consequences from one’s own
actions. Also, it is often difcult for organizations to achieve and sustain such
anequitable balance of decision-making power between youths and adults since
mostyouth organizationsfavor safermethods andthus rarelypractice effective
transfer of power to young people (Finn & Checkoway, 1998). Soap Cycling
SE enables power-sharing between youths and adults to work effectively and

130 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
to suffer from the consequences of their mistakes. As Bishop stated, “as the
students are given the power to make decisions, they also had to face the reality,
including being grilled by the directors and learning to take the blame when
they make mistakes”.
InthisSE,studentvolunteersareempoweredtomakerealdecisionsandtake
actions independently.This experience gives them opportunities to, as quoted
fromPatrickDavis,“become leaders and to gure how to run the business”.This
experienceallowsthemtohaveabetterunderstandingofwhatemployersexpect
from them when they enter the job market. As one of student volunteers said:
“Because our general manager let us do what usually other companies won’t
let their interns do. For interviewing people, I do not believe any company
would dare to let interns do [it]. But our general manager said, ‘just do
it’. I think from that [experience] we could learn a lot. Because we are
always on the other side of the table…. we have never been interviewers
[before joining Soap Cycling]. We have always been interviewees. When
we are interviewers, we get to know why sometimes interviewers like some
people or do not like some kinds of people. We get to know what they
think.” (Student E interview)
This study also found mentoring as a new type of youth-adult relationship
that is emphasized at Soap Cycling SE. Past research demonstrated that adults
assisting and supporting the youths to take up new roles as decision makers
and leaders would help them understand their responsibilities and expectations
toward them (Pearrow, 2008).As Jennings and colleagues (2006) argued that
suchsupport is important if youths are stretched to take on new responsibilities,
try out new ideas, reach out to the community, and begin to make important
decisions on behalf of the group.
AtSoapCyclingSE,BishopandotherboardmemberswhoareHKUacademic
staffsand donorsservedaspartners to theyouths,insteadof being their bosses
orleaders.Theirmentoringrelationshipwithstudentvolunteersisbuiltonmutual
trust and respect. They provide advice and guidance to the students only when
necessaryandemphasizingonthestudents’personaldevelopmentandindependent
learning, as one of students stated below:
“Our general manager normally gives us instructions that are not very
detailed. He respects what you want to do. He gives kind of vague instruction
in a positive manner. So, you are able to apply your own thinking instead
of him being bossy around and ask you to do what you are supposed to do.
This is different from how we actually learn in lectures where professors
give us certain tasks with guidelines which are quite restrictive so that
you can’t apply creativity to it.” (Student D interview)

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 131
By providing support and power to the young people, the adults who have
valuable real-world experience can help empower the students and achieve the
SE’sgoals. As Bishop said “If they make a mistake because they will and they
do, guys like me are there to ll in the gaps. We don’t want to hold their hands
but we understand they need some guidance”.
Building Entrepreneurial Skills
This study also found that Soap Cycling empowered its student volunteers by
helping them develop entrepreneurial skills. As part of their 13-week work,
volunteershavetosubmitanactionplantoimprovetheSEandageneralmanager
willevaluatetheirperformance.Thevolunteersworkinvariousdepartments,from
“strategy” (in charge of developing growth and expansion strategy), marketing
(in charge of formulating marketing and branding strategies), manufacturing
and delivery, to accounting, human resources, and law. For example, another
department called the “China expansion team” is responsible for building a
partnership with hotels in Mainland China. Student volunteers are expected to
be self-motivated and to work independently,as one of the students recalled:
“I think getting new hotel partners is quite challenging. We need to send
e-mails and we do not know if it will work. We need to approach people
who might be really interested. We did not know how to do this at the
beginning. So, we tried different strategies and had to ask former interns
about how they convince hotel partners. We found that if we tell hotels
that we are also partnering with Hilton, they will accept our invitation to
become our partners more easily.” (Student E interview)
Most internship positions in for-prot organizations do not often offer
opportunitiesforstudents to gaina holistic, reallifeentrepreneurial experience.
AtSoapCyclingSE,withitsemphasisonyouthempowerment,studentvolunteers
areencouragedto take responsibilities and are put into positions of authority,as
stated by Bishop: “this is a real position. Their faces will be on the webpage,
they have business cards. If they don’t do their jobs they will be red. What I
always tell students and our corporate sponsors is that this is not a company
so much as a youth movement”.Therst-handentrepreneurialexperiencehelped
developstudents’leadership,communication,creativethinkingandinterpersonal
skillsandothermanagementskills.Thefollowingquotefromone ofthestudent
volunteers well illustrated this point:
“There is no other organization in HKU or other universities [in Hong Kong]
that provides such a realistic and practical work experience. Everything
each student does [here] have an actual impact… the provision of such a

132 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
great work experience that allows students to gather rst-hand management
skills and also to increase the awareness of the actual possibility of working
in an NGO. ” (Soap Cycling website)
Although Soap Cycling is not for-prot organization, it has a solid business
modeland networks.TheSE providesa uniqueplatform for student volunteers
tohelp thedisadvantaged population by recycling soaps and allowthe students
to practice their entrepreneurial skills to maintain the nancial sustainability of
the SE. As one of student volunteers stated, “I am really interested in working
for NGOs, I felt connected to the Soap Cycling the most. I found Soap Cycling
integrates both sustainable development and charity. It integrates [both elements]
in a way that is very effective and useful” (Student D interview).
Soap Cycling SE is a hybrid organization in nature and combines both
commercial and social welfare logics (Cooney 2006; Doherty et al., 2014).
HencetheSEenablesstudentstolearnboththesocialandcommercialaspectsof
organizations,providingthemwithinvaluableexperiencetoenterthemarketplace.
Thefollowingquotesfromoneofthestudentvolunteerswellillustratedthispoint:
“I actually did a lot of internships in the business eld before. But Soap
Cycling is different. What they are doing is really helping people directly,
and they are not asking for prot. But we have connections with investment
banks or accounting rms. So it still provides some exposure to students
for them to get in touch with the business world, which is very helpful.”
(Student C interview)
Discussion
Despite the burgeoning research on SEs, there is a dearth of research on the
meaningandaspectsofempowermentandparticularlyyouthempowermentfrom
theSEperspective,ortheso-called“SE-as-Empowerment”researchgap.Toanswer
theresearchquestion“How do social enterprises empower its beneciaries?”, we
employedtheGioiaMethodologyandinductivelycodedandabstractednarrative
datacollectedvia in-depth interviewsand secondary sources pertainingto Soap
CyclingSE,therststudent-runSEinsideauniversityinHongKong.Ourresearch
identied two important elements of youth empowerment in SE not previously
discussed in the SE literature, which are: social-capital empowerment and
entrepreneurial-capital empowerment. Specically, social-capital empowerment
consistsofthreesub-elements,whicharei)buildingsocialawareness,ii)creating
meaningfulparticipation,andiii)developingsocialconnections.Social awareness
hasbeendiscussedintheliteratureasa positive outcome of youth development
programs (Shek, Siu & Lee, 2007) as it can further stimulate young people’s

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 133
senseofsocialresponsibilityandengagementincommunityactivities.However,
this study found a different notion of social awareness; an awareness of the
sufferingofothers(externalawareness)andawarenessofone’sownweaknesses
asayouth(internalawareness).Thishighlightsamulti-directionalformofsocial
awareness not currently documented in the SE literature.
To empower the students, Soap Cycling SE exposes them to crucial social
issuessurroundingsanitationandhygieneproblemsinpoorerregionsandprovides
themwithopportunitiestoparticipate in meaningful activities,suchasdistributing
recycledsoapstothepoorandorganizingvoluntarysessionsfordomestichelpers.
Existing studies demonstrate that engagement in meaningful activities may
contributetoyoungpeople’srolestability,self-efcacyandcounteracttheirlack
ofdirectionorpurpose(Chinman&Linney,1998).ThisisanaspectwhereSoap
Cyclinghaddonewelltoattractloyalarmiesofvolunteersandmorevolunteers
yearafteryear.Althoughtheimportanceofmeaningfulparticipationwasalready
discussedinthevolunteeringandempowermentliterature(Jenningset al.,2006;
MacNeela, 2008), it is relatively unheard of in the empowerment literature in
SE.Tothisend,thisndingreveals“creatingmeaningfulparticipation”as akey
component of a youth empowerment SE.
Moreover, Soap Cycling SE provides a platform where students can meet
andwork with peer student volunteers who share similar interests.By working
togetherforsocialcauses,youngpeopledevelopasenseofbondingandenhance
theirrelationshipsandsocialnetworks(withpeersandexternalorganizations)in
a positive manner.This appears to conrm one of the benets of volunteering
theorized in the literature (MacNeela, 2008; Miller et al., 2002). Nevertheless,
the “development of social connections” as process and goal of empowerment
thatwefoundinthisstudyremainsunder-reportedintheempowermentresearch
in SE. For instance, Datta and Gailey (2012) found that collective ownership,
self-reliance, prot sharing as key elements of empowerment — all of which
are “economic” empowerment in nature. Although they also discussed about
cooperation as an element of empowerment they refer this to ability to make
decisions and solving problems. Haugh and Talwar (2016) found economic
and social aspects of empowerment but did not underline the importance of
developingsocial connections as anelement of empowermentin SE. Ourstudy
adds the concept of social-capacity development as a central element in the
SE-as-empowerment literature.
Ourstudyalsoidentiedtwoelementsofentrepreneurial-capacityempowerment
asbeingcentraltoyouthempowermentSE:i)power-sharingbetweenyouthsand
adults,and ii) building entrepreneurial skills. Although building entrepreneurial
skillsare already discussed as an element of empowerment inthe SE literature
(Datta & Gailey, 2012; Haugh &Talwar, 2016), the concept of power sharing

134 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
between youths and adultsis relatively new and isan important addition to the
SE-as-empowerment literature.
Unlikeinmostyouthorganizationswhereyouthstakeleadershiproleswithout
actual decision-making power (Chinman & Linney, 1998), student volunteers
in Soap Cycling SE are given autonomy to make decisions and take actions to
achieve their goals and bear the consequences of their actions. Extant studies
demonstrate that it is not easy for youth organizations to maintain a delicate
balance between overt support and covert control (Jennings et al., 2006). This,
however,isnota problemforSoapCyclingSE,because inthisSE,adultsmake
little interference on how students should run the SE and provide unspecic/
ambiguous instructions to students and only providing advice when necessary.
Byassuming managerial rolesand running a business atSoap Cycling SEwith
great autonomy, student volunteers are able to develop and reinforce critical
entrepreneurialskillssuchasleadershipskills,communicationskills,andproblem-
solving skills that have vocational implications.
Asmentionedabove,theextantliteratureidentiedthreeinter-relatedelements
ofempowerment,which are resources,agency,and achievement (Kabeer,1999,
2005).Intermsof“resources”,SoapCyclingSEprovidesaneducationalplatform
foryoungpeopletolearnareallifesocialbusinesstobenettheunderprivileged
populationwholackaccesstosanitationandhygiene;andwherebydirectorsand
the general manager in the SE offers guidance and support. Soap Cycling has
morphedinto awell-established credit-bearinglearning program for students at
the University of Hong Kong. Student participants have access to funding and
establishedsocialnetworksatSoapCyclingSE(e.g.,thepartnerhotelsandsoap
suppliers), and they also receive regular evaluation and feedback reports from
the supervisors, which fosters their performance improvement. The importance
ofresourcesis already discussedinthe SE asempowermentliterature (Datta &
Gailey,2012;Haugh &Talwar,2016).However,there issomethinguniquewith
theresources provided by SEs located inside a university such as Soap Cycling.
First,SEsinsideauniversitybenetfromtechnical experts(i.e.,facultymembers)
whocouldprovide(free) advice and resources.Anothertype of resources isthe
legitimacy conferred by the university itself (e.g., University of Hong Kong is
the oldest university in Hong Kong and has a strong alumni networks across
sectors)whichlendscredibilitytotheSEoperatinginsideit.Thetechnicalexperts
and organizational legitimacy are two new types of resources that enrich and
extend the notion of “resources” in the empowerment concept in SE research.
Intermsof“agency”,studentvolunteersatSoapCyclingSEareempoweredto
makedecisions,takeactionsandbeartheconsequencesoftheiractions.Having
control and a voice in the SE enable student volunteers to develop a sense of
agency, which subsequently enables them to pursue the greater social goals

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 135
and strengthen their capacities. At the same time, the students who take part
in the SE have a clear social mission: to serve the underprivileged population
wholackaccess to sanitation andhygiene.Thesesuggest a different notion and
meaningofagency from one thatislinear and oneway(i.e., students being the
recipients of a service) to a pluralistic notion of agency, where students take
part in alleviating the plight of suffering others (the “strong ones” to empower
others) while simultaneously being empowered by the SE (the “weak ones” to
beempowered).Thepluralisticnotionofagency is an important contributionto
the SE as empowerment literature.
In terms of “achievement”, there are identiable positive outcomes at both
individual-and community-levels atSoap Cycling SE.At the communitylevel,
studentvolunteersengagedincommunityactivitiesandfeltempoweredtoimprove
the lives of the disadvantaged population in the poorer regions by utilizing
their knowledge and expertise in diverse elds.At the individual level, student
volunteersdevelopedarangeofskillsthatarehelpfulfortheirfuturecareer,and
developedtheirself-efcacyandcondencethroughthe13-weeksinternship.As
nicely summarized by one of the student volunteers: “The experience at Soap
Cycling will denitely help me to do better in the workplace. I really learned a
lot. For example, I learned how to negotiate with potential partners and how to
manage relationships between team members. I feel a lot more condent now”
(Student C interview). The notion of achievement tends to be under-studied in
theempowermentrelatedSEresearch.Ourstudyidentiesamulti-levelnotionof
achievementsinyouthempowermentSE.Wesummarizetheyouthempowerment
process derived from this study in Figure 3.
Figure 3. A youth empowerment process in the context of social enterprise
Building Social Awareness
Building Social Awareness
• Buildingsenseofcivic
responsibility
• Understandingsocial
problems
• Understandingone’sown
weaknesses
• Buildingsenseofcivic
responsibility
• Understandingsocial
problems
• Understandingone’sown
weaknesses
Meaningful Participation
Meaningful Participation
Power Sharing between Youth and Adults
Power Sharing between Youth and Adults
Directors,
BoardMembers,
GeneralManager of
thesocialenterprise
Directors,
BoardMembers,
GeneralManager of
thesocialenterprise
StudentInterns/
Volunteers
StudentInterns/
Volunteers
Building Entrepreneurial Skills
Building Entrepreneurial Skills
• Acquiring real-life entrepreneurial experience
• Developingtechnicalexpertise(e.g., IT, law,
marketing)
• Developingleadership, communication,
problemsolvingandinterpersonalskills
• Acquiring real-life entrepreneurial experience
• Developingtechnicalexpertise(e.g., IT, law,
marketing)
• Developingleadership, communication,
problemsolvingandinterpersonalskills
Social Connection
Social Connection
• Developingcollaborative
skills andsocialbonding
• Accommodatingothers
withdifferences
• Buildingvolunteering
networks
• Developingcollaborative
skills andsocialbonding
• Accommodatingothers
withdifferences
• Buildingvolunteering
networks
Entrepreneurial-Capacity Empowerment
Entrepreneurial-Capacity Empowerment
Social-Capacity Empowerment
Social-Capacity Empowerment
Creating an Empowerment Ecosystem
Creating an Empowerment Ecosystem
Freedomtoexperiment
Facilitating
Advising
Evaluating
• Creatingmeaningby
helpingtheneedy
• Silent time for reflection
• Enhancing self-efficacy
and confidence
• Creatingmeaningby
helpingtheneedy
• Silent time for reflection
• Enhancing self-efficacy
and confidence
• Exercisingdecision makingpower
• Makingrealdecisions, learning to fail
• Bearingresponsibilityforownactions
• Dealingwithambiguoussituations
• Mentoringbydirectorsandgeneralmanager
• Exercisingdecision makingpower
• Makingrealdecisions, learning to fail
• Bearingresponsibilityforownactions
• Dealingwithambiguoussituations
• Mentoringbydirectorsandgeneralmanager
Beneficiaries
(e.g., thepoor,
domestichelpers)
Beneficiaries
(e.g., thepoor,
domestichelpers)
Partners
(e.g., hotels, NGOs)
Partners
(e.g., hotels, NGOs)

136 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
Conclusion
This research sought to advance our understanding of a promising yet not so
well understood concept in SE: empowerment. In doing so, we employed the
Gioia Methodology and analyze primary and secondary narrative data of Soap
Cycling, a renowned youth empowerment SE in Hong Kong. The analysis
revealed that youth empowerment SE comprises ve empowerment aspects
–– building social awareness, meaningful participation, social connections,
building entrepreneurial skills, and power sharing between youths and adults
–– all of which can be categorized broadly into social-capacity empowerment
and entrepreneurial-capacity empowerment (seeFigure 2). These empowerment
practices, particularly the three elements in social capacity empowerment (i.e.,
buildingsocial awareness, meaningful participation,andsocialconnections)and
one of the entrepreneurial-capacity empowerment (i.e., power sharing between
youths and adults), are new and advances the empowerment concept discussed
in the SE literature (Datta & Gailey,2012; Haugh & Talwar, 2016).
Specically, the empowerment practices identied in this paper make four
new contributions to the SE-as-empowerment literature. First, SE in and by
itselfcanbeemployedasaresourceand mechanism to enhance young people’s
senseof social awareness(i.e., about targetbeneciaries’suffering),in addition
to understanding young people’s own challenges in life (e.g., being relevant in
the marketplace after graduation). This reects a multi-directional (internally
and externally oriented) aspect of empowerment not theorized in the extant
empowerment literature. This also highlights a new notion of social awareness
in youth empowerment SE; that is, building an awareness of the suffering of
others(external awareness) andawareness ofone’sownweaknesses as a youth
(internalawareness).Thishighlightsamulti-directional form of social awareness
not currently documented in the SE literature.
Second, this study demonstrates how SE provides a pluralistic notion of
agency, where students become agents who are then given the opportunities to
makelifechoicesbutalsomakedecisionsandchoicesthatimpactthelivesofthe
SE’sbeneciaries(e.g.,poorchildreninthethirdworld).Thepluralisticconcept
of agency is an important contribution to the SE-as-empowerment literature.
This also positions a university-based youth empowerment SE differently from
conventional SEs in the marketplace. Conventional SEs and specically work-
integrationSEs (WISEs) tendtotakeasingularviewoftheroleof beneciaries
(e.g.,the disabled, ex-convicts) in thatbeneciariesareconsideredasthe“weak
ones” to be empowered. It ends there. However, in university-based youth
empowerment SE, the students take a central role as the “strong ones” who

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Social Enterprise as a Mechanism of Youth Empowerment 137
empowerthebeneciariesof the SE (e.g.,thepoor)as well asthe“weakones”
to be empowered by the SE itself.
Third, SE can work effectively as a form of educational intervention to
empowerspecictargetgroups(e.g.,youths)bydevelopingtheirentrepreneurial
and managerial capacity.The majority of the empowerment literature does not
emphasizetheimportanceofentrepreneurialcapacityandourstudyisoneofthe
rsttoemphasizetheimportanceoftheentrepreneurial capacity as a mechanism
for empowerment.Arguably,oneofthemostinterestingcontributionsinthisstudy,
related to the entrepreneurial-capacity empowerment, is the concept of power
sharing between youths and adults as a new element of youth empowerment
SE. While this power sharing seems to be natural in a university learning
environment, it is rarely used in conventional SEs and under-reported in the
mainstream SE literature.
Last but not least, the context of our study is unique; we focused on an SE
thatworksonyouthempowerment inside a university.Thereislimitedresearch
on SE for youth empowerment. Our study shows that SEs inside a university
hasmany advantages,including their ability to gain free technical experts (i.e.,
faculty members) and organizational legitimacy conferred by the university,
which enable the SE to sustain its operations. Our study lls in the gaps about
what SE can do to empower the youths and how they do so. In an “exam-
oriented” culture like Hong Kong, this type of SE plays an invaluable role as
complementaryeducationaltoolstoprovideaholisticeducationtoHongKong’s
youths (Wong & Chandra, 2015).
Thisstudyunderscorestwoimportantimplicationsforpractitioners,educators
and policy makers. First, our ndings of the various youth empowerment
practicesmayprovideusefulforthosewhoseektodevelopcurriculumonyouth
empowerment and or SEs that involve young people. For instance, our nding
on power-sharing between youth and adultsasameansofempowermentimplies
aneedtore-dene the role ofadult-youthsrelationshipsin educational settings.
The other useful nding is the notion of providing unspecic instructions to
students and only providing advice when necessary. Empowerment requires
freedom to explore and make mistakes and recover from them. This suggests
that youth empowerment SE needs to “liberate” students from all kinds of
oppressionincludingtherigidityinhowtoaccomplishthings(commonlyfound
inconventionallecture-and-exambasedcourses);andembracethe“experimental
thinking”(i.e.,educatedtrialanderrorbycomparingastrategyversusabaseline)
principle in accomplishing tasks. In addition, our ndings provide insights for
work-integrationSEs(WISEs)andNGOleaderswhofocusonyouthdevelopment
bydemonstrating thebenetsofthesocial-capacityand entrepreneurial-capacity
empowerment strategies.

138 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
Lastly,thisstudyisnotwithoutlimitation.Inthis study,we adopted a single
case study approach and only focused on the Hong Kong-based Soap Cycling.
Therefore,our ndingsmight only capture the unique imprint and traits of this
specic social enterprise which may limit its generalization. Future research
can explore more cases and compare different types of social enterprises and
across countries to see if they have different strategies in empowering the
youth population. Future research can also conduct surveys to rene and test
the new elements of youth empowerment discussed above and test correlates
of performance (e.g., subjective and objective well-being measurements) using
different types of empowerment strategies. Experimental research to verify the
efcacy of various empowerment practices will also prove to be fruitful and
allow researchers to build stronger cause-effect connections between youth
empowerment and various types of performance measures (e.g., self-efcacy,
leadership potential, capabilities).
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144 Yanto Chandra & Shang Liang
Appendix I. A Screenshot of Sample Coding
3 Codings of “Students_can_nd_a_grp_to_work_together” from 3 les.
Ofcial website [708: 931]
“Thisisagreatplacetohelpstudentstocommit,pushthemselvesandnallybecomeamoreresponsibleperson.Anothergreat
thingsisaboutfriendship...youcanndagrouptoworktogetherthroughoutawholesemester...”
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The Explorer_blog_2016 [393: 551]
Althoughmyinternshipwasveryshort,Iwasabletoexperienceworkingwithothers,thinkaboutmarketingstrategies,and
learnhowtomakemyowndecisions.
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pwc_news [1484: 1605]
Attheendoftheday,theteammanagedtocleannumerousboxesofrecycledsoapandmadefriendswithothervolunteers
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3 Codings of “Students_receive_guidance_from_mentors&an_advisory_board” from 3 les.
Additional [4377: 5854]
Weintendtohaveboardmembersfrommultiplerelevantindustriesincluding:hotelsandhospitality,logistics,academia,sanita-
tionandpublichealth,andNGOmanagement.SofarthefollowingtalentedindividualshaveagreedtoparticipateontheBoard:
DavidBishop,FounderandChairman
Mr.Bishipholdsmultipledegrees,includingaJDfromTheGeorgetownUniversityLawCenter.Hewasworkedformultiple
internationallawrmsinboththeUnitedStatesandHongKongandiscurrentlyaseniorlectureratHKUwhereheteaches
severalcoursesconcerninglawandethics.
BanielCheungDirector
Mr.CheungholdsdegreesinElectricEngineeringandMarketingManagement.Hehastaughtatmultipleuniversities,andis
currentlyapart-timelectureratHKU.Amarketingexpert,Mr.Cheunghasrepresentedsomeoftheworld’smostrespected
companies.
BeauLeer,Director
Mr.LeerhasaBS(Economics)fromtheUniversityofUtahandaJDfromtheUniversityofMichigan.Heisnowasenior
lectureratHKUwhereheteachesBusinessLawandCompanyLawcourses.Mr.Leeralsohasyearsofexperienceworking
withNGOs,andsitsontheBoardfortheTandanaFoundation.
Dr.ChadLykins,Director
Dr.LykinscompletedhisPhDinLeadershipandPolicyStudiesatVanderbiltUniversity.HeiscurrentlyanAssistantProfessor
andCoordinatorwithintheFacultyofEducationattheUniversityofHongKong.DrLykinsisanexpertondevelopment,
poverty,andsustainability.
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2 Codings of “Allow_students_to_make_choices_in_startup_business” from 2 les.
Forbes_News_2013 [2980: 3347]
Bishopwantedtoprovidemeaningfulexperiencesforhisstudentsanddecidedifhecouldn’tndgoodopportunitiesforthem,
hewouldcreatethem.Heaskedagroupofthemiftheywouldbewillingtorunacompanyifheagreedtoputuphistimeand
capitaltostartthebusiness.Aftergivingthemsomeplausiblebusinessideas,thestudentsselectedSoapCycling.
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HKU_Newsletter [158: 689]
Hotelgueststypicallyareprovidedwithsmall,wrappedcomplimentarybarsofsoap.Rarelydotheyusethewholebar.What
happenstotheremainder?
ThatquestionspurredstudentsfromtheFacultyofBusinessandEconomicstoengagewiththecommunityinaninitiativethat
offersasolutionandbenetsboththeenvironmentandpublichealth.
InspiredbyanAmericanorganisationthatcollectsandrecycleshotelsoapintheU.S.,thestudentssetupasocialenterprise,
SoapCycling,toprovideasimilarserviceinHongKong.
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