Exploring the meaning(s) of sustainability for community‐based social entrepreneurs

Purpose To explore the meaning of sustainability from the perspective of community‐based social entrepreneurs (CBSE) on an estate in East London, UK, and enable local practitioners to express their views, and where appropriate, to challenge the values, cultural norms and underlying assumptions involved. Design/methodology/approach The study focused on an area of London that has been trapped in a spiral of decline for several decades and has been targeted for regeneration and renewal by the UK government. Describes the application collaborative inquiry and storytelling as research approaches to gather data from four social enterprise practitioners, where the techniques were chosen to be qualitative and allow the voices of informants to be heard, and their meanings and interpretations to be articulated. Addressed the following issues: what social entrepreneurs mean when they talk about sustainability( whether these meanings differ from the dominant discourse of sustainability contained in social enterprise policy and strategy publications; how sustainability is achieved by CBSE; what the barriers to achieving sustainability are; and whether sustainability is constrained by environmental context. Findings The findings indicated that the social enterprise meta‐narrative has followed orthodox business and embraced the values and ethos of the corporate sector (competitiveness, profit maximisation), while social enterprise is seen as an organizational hybrid with social and business goals. Concludes that the small number of social enterprises that have achieved financial sustainability from trading are included in the dominant discourse, but the majority of social enterprises, especially those engaged in community development and those located in areas of disadvantage, are not, and are unlikely ever to be, financially sustainable. Originality/value Provides a realistic assessment of the sustainability of social enterprises in areas of social and economic deprivation.