Social enterprises are defined as organizations that trade in goods or services for a socially beneficial purpose. As profit-making businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need, they accomplish work that is sustainable, socially and environmentally as well as financially. This is often referred to as having a “triple bottom line” and such companies often use blended-value business models that combine a revenue-generating business with a social-value-generating component. Because their social or environmental purpose is central to what they do, social enterprises are distinct from commercial businesses that may have secondary social or environmental objectives. The term “more-than-profit” was coined to describe this business model: while producing profit, the business accomplishes its social aim through its operation, for example by employing disadvantaged people or lending to businesses that have difficulty securing investment from mainstream lenders.

Andreas Heinecke, the founder and CEO of Dialogue Social Enterprise, was named the first Ashoka fellow in Western Europe in 2005. In 2007 he was nominated as an “Outstanding Global Social Entrepreneur” by the Schwab Foundation and in 2008 he became a member of the “World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social Entrepreneurship”.