Our intern Efue, has written a blog about understanding the motivations of a social enterprise
Over the summer, I embarked on a 10-week internship with Action Hampshire as a market research intern. This internship brought many opportunities, and it was so exciting to undertake research on understanding the experiences of social enterprises across Hampshire in order to meet their needs and provide more tailored support.
To achieve these aims, the following research questions were proposed:
- Why were current social enterprises in Hampshire motivated to become Community Interest Companies (CIC)[1] instead of charities?
- How do current social enterprises in Hampshire experience barriers and enablers to their organisation’s delivery?
During this time, I did different activities each week as part of the research process. In my first week, I developed a plan for the focus groups, which I would be using to gather data on social enterprises. I had the opportunity to engage and interact with organisations through creating recruitment emails, newsletter content and an interactive video which was sent out via social media and online forums such as Basecamp. This was an exciting introduction to my internship because it taught me how to quickly gain potential participants for a project. The use of different recruitment methods allowed me to develop my writing and public speaking skills and it was fun to see people so interested in my project.
In my second and third week, I conducted a literature review of national and regional research on CIC’s and social enterprises. This gave me a broader understanding of the experiences of CIC’s and social enterprises across the country, the context in which they operate and the success and challenges they face. This was a key element of the internship for me because it allowed me to learn how to use my analysis skills wisely.
My third week was the best week as I was able to bond and interact with all the social enterprises who participated. It was an insightful experience which allowed me to put my interpersonal skills to test through engaging online via zoom with 8 organisations who gave details of the struggles and successes they face as a social enterprise.
Furthermore, I developed data analysis skills during my fourth and fifth week by transcribing the focus groups and analysing the data. This was a key learning experience as I learnt how to code data in order to understand it better. This carried on to my sixth and seventh week where I undertook a thematic analysis of the data. This involved drawing out the key themes that provided an understanding of social enterprises’ experiences.
My final two weeks concluded with the writing of a short report which detailed the research findings. With the various skills I have gained along the way, this internship has helped develop my confidence. I am very grateful for the experience, and I believe there will be many skills that I can apply in my studies and future.
Follow this link to read Efue’s Social Enterprise Research
